


Be mine

by TanyaK



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 19:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaK/pseuds/TanyaK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story is AU, but some events are cannon like The Undertaking and Malcolm's death.<br/>Felicity and Laurel are friends, attended the same high school & have reconnected in the present because Tommy and Felicity have kind of become best friends and Laurel is his girlfriend. This triumvirate of friends makes one vigilante billionaire suspicious. Yes, Tommy is alive and being his wonderful self. This is a happy fic and everyone ships Olicity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reminiscence

A.N  
The Arrow panel at comic con discussed probable friendship about Laurel and Felicity and I thought this is begging to be fanfic-ed. When more prolific writers of the fandom did not take it up, I thought I should try my hands at it. Let me know how I fared. I have no beta so mistakes are all mine.  
Oh, and I also do not own anything although the idea of owning Oliver Queen is delicious.

\---------- 

The minute Felicity entered the basement at Verdant, she regretted coming in. For past four nights, she was going home after 2.00 am and reporting to work at QC at 8.30 am which left her with not enough hours to sleep. She could have taken the day off from the hood duties as it was a slow day at Arrow lair – Oliver had to go attend some social shindig and Diggle was out living a life, something that Felicity was severely lacking since – well since one Oliver Queen was found bleeding in her car, but her sense of responsibility over ruled the protests of her tired body. She dropped by to quickly check upon the progress of a search she was running and to update a couple of things and wanted to leave as early as she could because the basement was just not the same without her team – and her DVR is full of TV programs that she badly needed to catch up on. She performed her checks and was about to leave around 6.30 when Tommy sent her a text. 

Where are you when I need you and I need you right now, Tommy. 

Felicity laughed at the dramatic tone and responded with “Cut it out Merlyn, if you are still this melodramatic, I know you are not dying” 

It is strange how Tommy and Felicity became crazy fast friends. The first time she met him when she ran into him in Verdant one day; she thought he was world’s biggest jerk ever. Tommy thought she was one of Oliver’s castoff blondes and she was stalking his best friend after she got dumped. Tommy basically tried to get her to leave the club and when she refused to do that without telling him what she was doing in there, he called in security. Just when Felicity was about the throw the loudest tantrum of her life, Oliver and Diggle walked in and saved the situation. She vowed to ruin his life but only relented after Tommy apologized profusely and offered to have her favorite food delivered to her for a week. She accepted his apology but made him deliver gourmet food for a month – not a week. After Tommy found out about Oliver’s vigilante identity and was finding it difficult to communicate, Felicity worked as a bridge between the two friends before she lost her cool, made them sit together and basically ordered them to get their shit together; the rest as they say is history. 

“Come on Blondie, you are coming up with me. I need reinforcement,” Tommy was standing on the steps leading to basement gesturing towards the main floor of the club. 

Though Tommy has gradually accepted Oliver’s vigilante persona, he is still not too comfortable coming down to the basement, so when Felicity saw him down there, she raised her eyes and asked, “Why, what do you need reinforcement against, you do realize that I only weigh 115 pounds and would be quite useless in a bar fight.” 

“Not what, whom do I need reinforcement against and it is Laurel,” Tommy replied. 

“Why, what have you done now? I am not playing referee between you guys. You know I hate picking sides,” Felicity eyed him suspiciously. 

“Why do you automatically assume that I would be at fault in here, she is no angel you know,” Tommy whined. 

“It does not matter whether she is the devil or the angel, she is your girl friend and would always be right in an argument, it’s like a universal truth,” Felicity picked up her purse and decided to follow Tommy into his office. 

Laurel was sitting on Tommy’s seat in his office. 

Felicity loved Tommy’s office. It has cream walls and carpet and dark wooden furniture, but her favorite piece was a dark green leather upholstered sofa next to the glass window overlooking the club. If she had her way, she would steal that sofa and drag it downstairs to the lair. 

She entered the office, plopped herself and her bag on his desk and asked, “What has he done now? You can do whatever you want with him, I won’t say a thing, you know.” 

“What the hell Felicity,” Tommy protested as he followed her into his office and sat down on the chair facing Laurel, “I thought you were my friend.” 

“Of course you are my friend but I have known Laurel since I was a kid, she has seen me with my braces and frizzy hair, she can put those pictures online and destroy my carefully crafted persona, it’s just a matter of self preservation,” she gestured at her crisp white shirt, her grey vest and at her glasses when she mentioned her carefully crafted persona. 

She also made herself more comfortable by sitting Indian style cross legged on Tommy’s desk between Laurel and Tommy and looked ready to dispense justice. 

“Jesus! He is acting like I asked him to cut off his arm. All I want is him to stand by me at my high school reunion. I want to have a good time and show off my handsome boyfriend. Is that too much to ask?” Laurel asked. 

“Absolutely not. And dude, you run a club which basically means you party everyday so what’s your excuse.” Felicity looked between the two of them. 

“I don’t want every one of your class mates to come and ask if I am the same douche who ruined your high school prom. I don’t want to be that guy, you know,” Tommy complained. 

“Wait what? You ruined her high school prom? That was a good ten years ago and I thought you guys were dating for just over a year!” Felicity asked. 

“Well she had to kiss many a toads before she realized that I am her prince but yeah, we kinda knew each other back then,” Tommy laughed. 

“No we did not know each other back then. I only punched you in the face and if you don’t come to the party with me, I will have no compunction in punching you yet again,” Laurel threatened. 

“I was not the only one you punched that night, the first one to get his ass whooped was Oliver and seeing him getting his comeuppance was so worth that punch,” Tommy had a gleeful look in his eyes as he remembered that time. 

“What happened? Why don’t I know anything worth knowing in life? How come you have punched these alpha males in one night and that too when you were a teenager and I am hearing about it for the first time? Why don’t I know this story? I need the whole story and I need you to spill it NOW,” Felicity went on without taking a breath. 

“Honestly, there is not much to this story. You graduated a few months earlier than the rest of us right? Laurel asked. When Felicity said, “In February,” she continued. 

“Remember Carter, my boyfriend back in high school,” when Felicity nodded, Laurel said, “He and I broke up that spring, so I was single back then. And I met Oliver at the hospital where I was volunteering and we dated a bit before I asked if he would be my date to my school prom. I knew he went to a different school but going solo soon after breaking up with your boyfriend of 3 years was not something I was willing to do, so I decided to take the matters in my head and went ahead … ” Laurel could have gone but Felicity interrupted her. 

“You dated Oliver? Oliver Queen!!! Our Oliver!!!” She looked at Tommy wide eyed and then back at Laurel, “and he was volunteering at a hospital?”

“Well, Tommy and I knew Oliver before you, so technically he is our Oliver, but I digress,” Laurel laughed, “and he was not voluntarily “volunteering” at the hospital, it was part of the community service he had to do to avoid jail sentence for a public misdemeanor, so yeah, we met at that hospital, dated for a month before I asked him for the prom.” Laurel went on. 

“For the first time in my life I wish that I had not missed the prom to attend advance mathematics camp, I mean I missed all this drama and only get to hear about it ten years later,” Felicity was literally rubbing her hands in regret. 

“Ah, I always forget that the two of you were together in school,” Tommy reacted – for the umpteenth time – to the news that Felicity and Laurel were in school together. 

“Yeah we were in school together but that is not important, what is important that you got punched, by a girl and I want to know all the dirty details so don’t interrupt,” Felicity almost chided Tommy and turned to Laurel, “Okay, so you were dating Oliver back then and it makes sense but how did you end up punching Tommy in the face?” 

“Oh God, I so don’t want to relive that memory,” Laurel shuddered, “Anyways, to cut an embarrassing story short, Tommy and Oliver had some sort of prank war going back then and if I know anything about them, I would assume that they still have it going. Apparently Oliver had shaved half his head after lacing his drink and he wanted to get even so he put sparkly silver dust with some kind of chemical on Oliver’s car seats the night of the prom. When we got to the prom, both our asses were silver and sparkling.” 

“Oh.My.God! You were the devil Tommy” Felicity was still wide eyed. 

“A suicidal devil because I actually crashed her prom to see how it turned out for Oliver.” Tommy shook his head at his own stupidity. 

“Oh he was a suicidal devil with a buzz cut, remember Oliver had shaved half his head a fortnight before,” Laurel reminded. 

“I so wanted to gloat so I walked up to Oliver and asked how his sparkly ass is doing, being the Oliver we all know, he said that his ass was just fine and it will be even better in next five minutes because of all the attention its gonna get. He then went up to the DJ, asked him to play ‘Old Time Rock & Roll’, took off his shoes, jacket and trousers and pulled a Tom Cruise from Risky Business by dancing in his underwear,” Tommy was in his element when he regaled the whole story. 

Felicity was laughing hard and had tears coming out of her eyes. “Now I know for sure – missing the prom is the single biggest regret of my life. What I would not give to see a video of that happening.” 

“Thank God it all happened ten years ago when people were not ready with their smart phones to record everything for posterity’s sake. I am sure there were photos posted on MySpace back then but mercifully that too died after facebook and twitter took over. Otherwise my career would have in jeopardy,” Laurel came around and sat on the table with Felicity. 

“How can that incident jeopardize your career as Assistant District Attorney, it was Oliver who was dancing in his briefs?” Felicity was still laughing hard. 

“I attacked two boys; I don’t think DA’s office would look kindly to that, even though I had every reason to do that. When Oliver started channeling his inner Tom Cruise and took off his clothes and started prancing in his socks and underwear, I watched him in utter horror for a couple of minutes then I was galvanized in action. I walked up to him and punched him square in the face. Oliver slipped on the floor, DJ stopped playing and there was this one loud collective gasp. Everyone was quiet except Tommy, he was clapping and laughing his head off.” Laurel told Felicity. 

“Like I said I was suicidal that night so I went up to Laurel, bowed down and told her that even if had orchestrated every move that evening, it couldn’t have turned out any better than it did.” Tommy added. 

“I did not even know that Tommy was responsible for all that fiasco, I was just mad because too many people tried to touch my sparkly bottom that evening so I took a swing at his chest and then another when he asked why did I punch him. I looked around at all the people, took my shoes off and walked six blocks home in my stockinged feet. Needless to say, that was my last date with Oliver. ” Laurel concluded. 

“Holy crap, that has got to be the single most entertaining story I have heard recently – or ever,” Felicity tried to take a mock swing at Tommy which he ducked. “I am sorry about you ruining your dress but those were some serious kick ass moves you pulled out. You go girl,” Felicity hi-fived Laurel. 

Someone knocked on the door and brought a bottle of wine with three glasses. Felicity’s eyes popped up when she saw it was a bottle of 2003 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port. “I don’t think I have ever had Portuguese wine.” 

“And I got it especially for you, now you have got to take my side and veto the whole idea of this reunion thing,” Tommy dangled the glass of wine in front of her. 

“She does not get to veto this and as it is her high school reunion as well, she is coming with us as well,” Laurel said it with finality. 

Tommy started laughing at that. 

“No, I cannot go, you know I barely had any friends apart from you, Leena and Sanjeev and Sanjeev was friends with me because I was captain of the Math club and Leena tolerated me because you basically commandeered her to do so.” Felicity pleaded. 

“Why would you not have any friends? You are delightful; she is delightful, isn’t she?” Tommy asked Laurel. 

“No, I am awkward and say the most inappropriate things when flustered which is basically most of the time,” Felicity put down her glass and beseeched Laurel who refused to entertain her pleading. 

“Stop looking for sympathy, you know Tommy would want more familiar faces around him,” Laurel said to Felicity and then turned to Tommy, “She is just being overly dramatic, the reason she had very few friends was because she was over two years younger than the rest of the class. We were teenage girls who discussed boys, make up and sex – not necessarily in that order – and she was a younger brainier person who made everyone uncomfortable. It was like having your kid sister under your foot all the time. Add the fact that she was smarter than most of us but was stupid enough to flaunt it in front of the teachers did not bode well for her. Even I thought she was irritating but one day, Jason, the school bully took her glasses and broke them and the protective instinct in me kicked in and I went to help her up and sort of took her under my wings. We actually stayed friends throughout the high school but lost touch later on because she went to Cambridge for college and I went to California.” 

“Where we reconnected after that disastrous prom night which I want to erase from my memory but you are making me relive it by going to this party,” Tommy said.  
Laurel went to lie down on the sofa next to window and told Tommy off, “You are going and that is the end of it all. Felicity is also coming and I won’t hear any excuses.”  
“Forget the party; tell me how you guys reconnected? Did you recognize him when you first saw him as the douche from prom?” Felicity tried to change the topic of conversation.  
“Of course not, he had the buzz cut back then and I barely saw his face, I only punched him. I saw him three years later with long flowing hair and a beard, he was going for a rockstar look perhaps. I saw him making out on our sofa with my roommate at USC, screamed and threw a book at him to get him off her.” Laurel remembered, “And then he went on to date almost all the girls in our building so he was always around. I think I once threw a shoe at him as well because he was having sex on the stairs and I wanted to get past him and his girl.”

“See, she was always after me that is why she kept punching me or throwing things at me. She knew I was a catch since that prom day,” Tommy winked at Laurel. 

“You were a total slut back in the day and you know it Tommy Merlyn,” Laurel winked back. 

“So basically Tommy dated half the girls you knew back in college, or may be more and you dated his best friend albeit briefly in high school and now the two of you are an item. Whoa! You guys certainly like to keep it within your own little circle, don’t you?” Felicity tried to trail the whole circle of who dated whom in a sequence. 

“Yes, we like to keep it in the family, and now that you are one of us, you too will end up dating one of us,” Tommy got up and hugged Felicity from behind. 

Felicity was alarmed, she knew she had a massive empire state building sized crush on Oliver but Tommy is the last person she wanted to let in on, so she feigned indifference, 

“Seriously, so which one of your idle rich friends you are trying to set me up with?” 

“Who said anything about setting you up with any of my idle rich friends, you can always end up with extremely hard working Laurel,” he smirked. 

“Gawd Tommy, you are incorrigible,” Felicity tried to shake him off her shoulders but he clung on. 

Laurel was laughing lying on the sofa, “Tommy, it was not a random idea that popped up in your mind. I am willing to bet that you have had thoughts about us before.” 

Tommy went to the sofa that Laurel was lying on and kissed her. “You know me so well, that is why you are my girl.” 

Felicity looked at her friends and smiled. No matter how much they squabble, their love for each other was there for everyone to see. She decided to leave so that they can get some privacy and told them that her DVR beckons her presence.

Laurel who has had a long day like her waved her off from her sofa while Tommy got up and helped her off his table. He gave her the rest of the bottle of wine so that she can enjoy it in her evening in and went to see her off.  
_____________

Oliver had forgotten his phone in the lair and stopped by at the Verdant to pick it up. While he was on his way out he heard Felicity’s giggles and turned towards Tommy’s office wondering what she was doing there. He saw her sitting cross legged on top of Tommy’s table with a glass of wine in her hand and a wide smile on her face and a happy Tommy hugging her from behind. That image hit him so hard that he retreated back in the alley. He loved Tommy like a brother but he also knew that Tommy has been around and then some. He didn’t like Tommy’s easy proximity with Felicity and the way felicity was responding to it. He decided that he must go and check up on her but when he came out of that alley, he saw Tommy escorting Felicity to the back door that the employees used, handing her what seems to be a bottle of wine and kissing her on the cheeks. They chatted some more followed by a loud laugh from both. Tommy was humming when he was heading back to his office and Oliver felt like punching his best friend. 

He left the club soon after Tommy went inside his office and closed the door and kept thinking about Felicity on his way to the charity gala he was supposed to attend. He thought Tommy was solid with that lawyer girl Laurel he briefly dated in high school. He met her a quite a few times and she seemed more like a girl who can handle Tommy, not Felicity who is awkward, and quirky and funny and smart and beautiful. 

Oliver was so startled with his train of thoughts that he actually hit the brakes – the car brakes. As he restarted the car, he wondered since when he started thinking of his IT girl as beautiful.  
\---  
Leave a message, criticism or a suggestion, they are all welcome.  
PS: Those who have not seen Tom Cruise's dance moves in underwear from Risky Business should totally check it on you tube, so much fun.


	2. Undercover blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter where it all dawns on Tommy Merlyn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a lot of readers wanted to know, I thought I should make it clear that in this alt universe, Oliver and Laurel are not the childhood friends, they only know each other through Tommy. I mean she is his best mate's girl friend and they should have been close friends but what with his vigilante activities and other obligations, they never really had a chance to hang out much, so yes, they are at best casual friends because they have Tommy in common and they both love him. Nothing more.   
> I hope this clears up.   
> This chapter has more Olicity and more confused Oliver, that guy is dense when it comes to romance.

Oliver has been grumpy – or grumpier than usual – since the day he caught Felicity leaving Tommy’s office with a big smile and a bottle of wine. He also started noticing things about Felicity that he never saw before like how her glasses are simple black frames from the top but are tortoise shell from the bottom, how he can spot the exact second in the middle of one her rambling sessions when she realizes that she is rambling and puts on the brakes and how she smiles every time she receives a text from Tommy. He has never really checked her phone but he assumed that all those texts are from Tommy because he often see her stopping by on her way out to either chat with Tommy or to wave him good bye when he is busy with the club. 

Oliver was not willing to admit it to himself but he did not like Felicity’s growing friendship with Tommy and he did not even know why he did not like it. It’s not like he has any romantic feelings for Felicity or fears that she would reveal his hood identity because Tommy knows that already. Given their combined checkered past, he cannot even claim that he cares if Tommy cheats on his girlfriend because they are bros and there is an understanding that they will both support each other no matter what. He just did not like them hanging out and being familiar with each other and he was thinking these thoughts while he was hanging upside down on a bar at the basement. He then blamed it to the rush of blood to his head and jumped down. 

He took a towel and walked over to Felicity and Diggle who had a building plan spread out in front of them and were finalizing the strategy for an operation about a crook, Adam Sullivan, who is embezzling from pension funds of his employees and stashing it all up in an off shore bank account. 

“We will conduct this operation during the annual charity gala that Mrs Sullivan throws in late summer, which would be on the terraces and gardens of his estate outside Starling City, we need to get in there, access his computer’s key which he keeps on his person all the time, get into his ultra secure off shore bank account, return all the money back to the pension fund and leave enough electric evidence for police to make a case,” Diggle started explaining the plan when he saw Oliver walking towards them. 

“We not only need his computer key to access his computer but also his finger prints and the password to access his office, I have already stolen his finger prints from SCPD records when he was arrested for DUI ten years ago and will have them on me. Oliver will ask him to show him the Picasso that Moira lost in a bidding war to Mrs. Sullivan; being the vain man he is, he would want to show off and will take Oliver to his office, Oliver will record the sound that electronic lock will make when he will be typing in the security code and I will figure it out with the key sounds tool at my end, it should take them about 6 minutes to admire the painting, tell each other how wealthy and powerful they are and come out, when you are out of his office, you will wish him well and hug him, steal the electronic key to his computer from his pocket, pass it on to Dig who will pass it on to me, I will be there loitering around the kitchen in waiting staff’s uniform so that I can slip out to private quarters, you will have make sure that Sullivan does not go inside the house for next 15 minutes, Dig will be in the house and will stand guard outside the office to make sure no one comes in and I will do my IT magic like I always do,” Felicity was all set and ready to go in the field. As it has been a few months since her last outing, she is looking forward to it. 

“Felicity will then hand me the computer key, slip out of the party and wait for us in the car, I will hand you back the key, you will go to Sullivan, say good bye, drop the key back in his pocket and we will be out of that gala,” Diggle finished off the plan. 

Oliver looked at the blue print and listened to their plan, it all looked fairly routine to him but he was still a little reluctant to let Felicity out in the field, especially after her last excursion where she sprained her ankle fighting a man twice her size in close combat. He turned to her and asked, “Looks okay to me but tell me again why can’t we do it from here – you said you can hack into anything a human can make?” 

“Oliver, we want him arrested for his crime and we also do not want to lose the money, if we access it from anywhere else, he will know and be alert and flee the country if he thinks there is a chance of his arrest. We want to gather evidence without letting him know that his account has been hacked and it can only happen if we get to it through his computer, with his IP address and accessed through his computer key, we don’t want him to get away with stealing old people’s money, do we?” asked an earnest Felicity. 

Oliver did not say anything and headed off towards the shower. Felicity looked at Diggle and asked, “What’s wrong with him? Has something happened with him at home or something? 

“Nothing that I know of but then with Oliver, no one really knows anything,” Diggle shrugged. 

They worked out the logistics of the plan once more and then Diggle left. Felicity too was about to leave when Oliver made an appearance again and this time too without a shirt. 

God, what is wrong with this man! Is he allergic to clothing or something, she thought to herself. 

Just before she could get up from her seat, he swiveled it and Felicity faced Oliver’s rock hard abs. 

She looked up at his face and saw him scowling down at her. 

“I have a bit of a problem with the plan,” he said. 

“Why? I think we have gone over every aspect and it looks pretty straight forward to me – or as straight forward as any plan of stealing back millions of dollars could be,” she opened up the plan for the event in her computer so that she can go through it with him once again but he stopped her. 

“That bit is fine, but I don’t want you all by yourself after what happened last time, why don’t you come with me, as my date for the gala? That way I would be able to keep an eye on you,” Oliver looked at the computer screen when he threw out that idea. 

Felicity was speechless! Did Oliver Queen just suggest that she go with him – as his date – to a charity gala! For a brief few seconds, she could not believe it. Oliver Queen asked her out – even if it was to fool a crook – it made her feel happy and feminine. She may be a strong independent woman but she is NOT immune to those abs that he was flaunting, or those oh so blue eyes or that deep voice. 

“Felicity!” Oliver called her name twice before she came out of her reverie and looked at him. Oliver looked positively uncomfortable, like he was under duress. She realized that Oliver was not really interested in going with her but just want her near him to make sure she is safe. She had to veto down the idea. 

“Oliver, the idea is that I slip out and go into his bank account, if I make an entrance with you, it would be impossible, people will be looking at me. In uniform, no one will notice who I am and where do I go and what would I do? In any case, even if I do make an entrance with you, you will have to stay outside with Sullivan and I will have to go be in his office, it’s not like you will be able to keep your eyes on me,” Felicity tried to explain. 

Oliver still looked perturbed and if Felicity is reading him right, a little angry, though for the love of God, she could not figure out why he would be angry.

“In case anything happens, I would have a better chance of running away in flat shoes and trousers that I would be wearing as a waitress than a gown and stilettos,” Felicity tried to lighten the mood by cracking a joke but Oliver continued with his sour face and moved back to put on his night club owner persona and went up the club without saying a word. 

Felicity thought about it for a few minutes and then started gathering her things so that she too could head home. She was in her way out when Tommy called her and they chatted for a bit in the lobby leading towards the staff entrance and that was where Oliver found them when he came back from the main floor. When Tommy tried to stop him to talk, he just shook his head and said. “Not now Tommy,” and stepped out. Both Tommy and Felicity looked at each other and but they both did not know what had gotten into him. Tommy came out and saw Felicity to her car. 

Oliver was sitting in his car in the Verdant parking lot when he saw Felicity coming out to her car with Tommy. Though he did not linger and waved her good bye when she drove off, Oliver clenched his hands over the steering wheel and grimaced. Ife he had his way, he would not let anyone – except perhaps Diggle – near her and he still did not know why he was behaving like a Neanderthal man around Felicity. In their younger days, Tommy and Oliver never had girl trouble, if they both liked a girl, one of them – usually the one who figured it out first – would bow out and no one would discuss it ever again. With Felicity, Oliver was behaving strangely and he did not even know why! He sat in the car for a few minutes and then went back to the basement to punch a bag and let his anger out on it. 

\----

Next day when felicity walked in the lair, both Diggle and Oliver were getting prepared. Felicity too took out the bag she had prepared in advance with fake finger prints, her custom made tablet and few other gadgets she may need. She popped in the bathroom to change into her uniform of black trousers, white collared shirt and a black vest and tied her hair in a bun. They all got in Oliver’s Bentley and drove to the Sullivan estate. 

The silence in the car is stifling Felicity. She did not know what had gotten into Oliver of late but she was not comfortable enough to ask him. When Oliver noticed that Felicity was wearing a name tag which says Anastasia and he asked, “Why Anastasia?” Felicity almost sagged with relief that Oliver is not brooding and being all silent and glowering so she responded enthusiastically and said, “The catering company working this event made everyone wear a tag and I thought why not choose a name that is very different. If anyone remembers, they would remember a Russian princess’ name.” 

“Will you take on the accent as well because just the name won’t cut it, there are too many non Russian Anastasias out there” Diggle laughed in the front. 

“Should I?” Felicity was perturbed, “I am not sure if I can pull off Russian but I can do French, perhaps I should have gone with a more French sounding name. Can I still be Anastasia and sound French?” she asked them both. 

“Felicity, chances are that you will hardly get to speak with anyone, I don’t think you will need to do any accents today,” Oliver laughed. 

“But we can totally do them when we get back to Verdant, I have always wanted to know how you will babble in French,” Diggles chimed in. 

“Guys, enough!” she cried and then saw the driveway to the Sullivan residence and whistled, “So that’s what happens when you embezzle pensioner’s money, you get houses with big gates and long drive ways and mansions and lots of servants,” Felicity rambled on. When Diggle looked at her in the back view mirror and coughed, Felicity realized that the Queen residence is probably twice the size than Sullivan estate so she did what she did best and rambled on. “Of course Oliver probably has a bigger house that this, I mean I have not really seen it but if I remember correctly, one issue of Homes & Garden mentioned that your house has 38 rooms and a tennis court and stables – I mean who has stables in their homes in this day & age, not that there is anything wrong with that – of course I am not saying that your family has embezzled anyone’s pensions just that you are very rich but not all rich people steal and finally we have reached the residence and we should get off and I should shut up.” 

Before she could’ve jumped off the car after her long mortifying rant, Diggle stopped her. “Felicity, this is the front entrance, only Oliver will get off here, I will drop you off at the back so that you can sneak in through the kitchen.” 

Felicity only nodded in response. 

When Diggle got off the car to open door for Oliver, he lightly touched her arm and said, “You could have gotten off here had you chose to come with me,” with that, he was off the car. 

Felicity was still wondering about Oliver’s cryptic remark and his peculiar behavior when she got off the car a good ten minutes earlier. 

\--

The mission ran smoothly or as smoothly as a mission could go. Oliver managed to pick out the electronic computer key when he patted Sullivan’s back and dropped it in Diggle’s hands who took it to felicity who then went to Sullivan’s office and reversed the embezzled funds back to its rightful owners and gave back the key to Diggle and stepped out. Diggle then handed it to Oliver who slipped it back in Sullivan’s pocket, so it was all good and Oliver switched the comms off thinking it was all over. 

Just when he pulled his phone out to call out to Diggle, he spotted Tommy who was there with his girlfriend Laurel. Oliver did not really know if it was a coincidence or did Felicity let it slip that they would be here and Tommy followed her to the party. Needless to say he was furious, both at Tommy and Felicity and decided that he would just go and ask Tommy about what he was doing there. 

Felicity, who was on her way out was caught by the person in charge of the waiting staff, he yelled at her for taking a cigarette break when he was short staffed, shoved a tray of Hors d'oeuvres in her hands and practically pushed her out to the party area. Felicity was at a loss and did not know what to do with the tray. She told Diggle that she would be out in 5 minutes because she did not know where to get rid of that tray without ever going into the kitchen. She never waited, not even when she was in college, and had no idea what to do with that tray. A lady called her and she went to her to offer her some of the appetizers she was carrying, just when she turned she spotted Tommy and Laurel and she was in a shock. She started speaking to both Digg and Oliver that she has spotted them and she needed cover. Tommy of course knows that she helps Oliver with his Vigilante activities but Laurel had no idea and she would not know what tale to spin to her if she ever finds that Felicity – the IT whiz and a math genius with a well paid job – is waiting for a catering company in a private party. She was calling out on them both but Diggle was bringing in the car and Oliver … he was busy glowering at Tommy from a distance. 

Just when she was about to panic and throw the tray in the middle of the party, Tommy sensed her predicament and came to her rescue. He made an excuse to Laurel whose back was to Felicity, walked very calmly towards her, got hold of her arm and dragged her outside where he dumped the tray on another waiter and walked her towards the car park.   
Before Tommy could’ve asked her what she was doing in there, Oliver followed them outside. “What were you doing in there? I thought you were already in the car Felicity.” He asked angrily. 

“I am so sorry Oliver but that guy just handed me the tray and then a nice lady asked me to come over and then I saw Laurel and I panicked because if she caught me I did not know how I would have explained it all.” Felicity tried to clarify. 

“What else were you expecting? You must have told Tommy that you would be here and he followed you, you do realize that you could’ve jeopardized the whole mission,” Oliver was angry and glaring at one Tommy Merlyn. 

“Excuse me! How could I have jeopardized the mission?,” it was Felicity’s turn to be angry, “In case you forgot I was in there tracing and bringing back the money while you were schmoozing that scum. I never NEVER tell anybody anything about our missions, and even though Tommy knows about your other nocturnal activities, he too is not privy to mission details because that’s not how I operate and you know that,” she literally screamed at him but she was seething with rage at his insinuation that she could have babbled about the mission and risked their cover. 

“Ollie, I don’t what is going on here, but you have been seriously weird of late; I came with Laurel who was commandeered by her boss to be here. I have no clue what you guys are doing here and why is Felicity playing a cater waiter. I only brought her out because it was obvious that she was under cover for something that you guys are doing and she thought Laurel would blow her cover,” Tommy was looking between the two of them trying to figure out why they both were so angry. 

Just then Diggle came in with the car and before he could have stepped out, Oliver opened the door and motioned Felicity to get in the car. Felicity was angry and did not want to ride back with Oliver. She turned towards Tommy and asked, “Can I hitch a ride with you guys, I promise I will hide in the boot and Laurel will not know about me.”   
“Of course I will take you home and you don’t have to hide in the boot,” he touched her arm to put her at ease. 

He pulled out his phone and called Laurel, “Hey, can you ride back with your boss, I have to run back to the club, there is an emergency and I gotta be there,” he listened to her response and told felicity that Laurel will come back with his boss and that he will take her back. 

Felicity refused to look anywhere near Oliver who was only scowling at Tommy and Tommy was looking at both of them a little bewildered. He eventually threw his hands up in the air and walked Felicity towards his car. After she sat down in the passenger seat, he looked back at Diggle and told him that he will text him to let him know when he drops Felicity off. He actually wanted to let Oliver know because he was beginning to realize why Oliver was behaving like a jealous douche. Diggle nodded and acknowledged Tommy’s not so subtle message. 

Felicity was quiet on the ride back and was looking outside the window while Tommy Merlyn is hatching a plan. He just realized that not only can he have a lot of fun at Oliver’s expense; it may also bring two of his dearest friends together. He cannot wait to get started but it will have to wait because he will need some help from Laurel to put the plan in motion. 

Any suggestions or criticism would be most welcome. Please review :)


	3. Everyone gets a shoe emergency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and Laurel hatches 'the plan'

“So let me get this straight, you want me to help you find a guy for Felicity and that guy should be rich, good looking, intelligent with impeccable manners. Not only this guy should be interesting, amazing and be able to sweep her off her feet but he must also not stick around after sweeping her off her feet, and just leave her, right?” Laurel gave Tommy a skeptical look. 

“Yes, that is just about it,” said Tommy while looking at his girlfriend pouring his coffee and smiling. It was Sunday and they were having breakfast together. 

“I hate to break it to you but such a paragon of virtue, good looks and wealth would be almost impossible to find. Even if we manage to find someone like him, how in the God’s name will we convince him to let go of Felicity after a few dates and why the hell would we do that? I thought you liked her and would want her to be happy,” Laurel was perturbed with this weird demand of Tommy. 

“First of all, such a paragon of perfection is not impossible to find, you have a boy friend who is pretty much all that and more. Second of all, I do like Felicity, very much so and it is in her long term interest that I do not want the guy to stick around,” Tommy was spreading marmalade on his toast while trying to explain why a short term romance is in Felicity’s best interest when Laurel cut him short. 

“First of all, you are no longer rich so you are not that paragon of perfection. Second of all, how will you explain this fondness to Felicity when she would be heartbroken over this guy who is apparently perfect in every which way? Third of all, what exactly this exercise in futility would achieve?” Laurel was adamant that Tommy’s scheme is very very stupid. 

“Hey, you said being a billionaire was my least attractive quality,” Tommy placed a hand on his heart as if he was hurt, “now you are saying that I am not longer perfect because I don’t have my trust fund anymore.” 

“You know you are not perfect but that is good because perfection is over rated. In any case, I am very happy with my flawed boy friend because perfect would have been so boring,” Laurel laughed, “but coming back to Felicity, fill me in, what’s the story?”

“I will tell you but you have to promise that you will not only help me but will also not lecture me about the stupidity or futility of it,” Tommy wanted an ironclad promise. 

“So not only your idea is stupid but also futile – your words not mine,” She raised her hands in defense, “but I will support you because that’s what an amazing girl friend –that’s me – would do for her less than perfect boyfriend. Now shoot.” 

“So it has been what a year that we have been friends with Felicity?” Tommy asked. 

“Ten months – give or take,” said Laurel. 

“and we have not seen her date any one during this time, right?” Tommy wanted to make sure. 

“Nops, there may have been a few casual dates but nothing that progressed to a second date, at least I don’t know about any second dates, but then Felicity was never really big on dating” Laurel thought. 

“You knew her back in high school and she was younger than all of you, of course she was not big on dating back then, but now is different. She is smart, successful, confident and beautiful yet she does not encourage anyone, outside her family she is close to just four men, there is her boss who is gayer than Rupert Everett rollerblading in denim cut-offs. That guy not only chairs pride events in Starling City but takes time off to go attend events in other cities. There is Diggle who treats her like a kid sister and is engaged to the hottest waitress in town. There is me who is extremely fond of her but is a one woman man and is dating the hottest lawyer in town so that leaves us with just Oliver who is not related to her, is not currently dating anyone – hot or otherwise – and is known to be straight and extremely fond of ladies” Tommy said. 

“If you want to set up Oliver with Felicity, then yes, your idea is stupid, they are as different as chalk and cheese and I don’t see them working out well, in case you have not noticed, she is fidgety as hell when he is around,” Laurel looked at Tommy as if he has lost his marbles. 

“No, I don’t want to set her up with Oliver because if I do, he will run in the other direction faster than the Flash himself and she will babble to the point that she will strangle herself with her own tongue. But if you notice, ever since he broke up with McKenna, which was a year ago, he has not dated anyone and he spends and awful lot of time with her. There may have been a few random dates but nothing that progressed to a second one, just like Felicity. Apart from Thea and his mom, the only two women he is close to are Raisa and Felicity and even though Raisa raised him and loves him dearly, I know it for a fact that no one knows him like Felicity does and he digs that,” said Tommy.  
“Okay, but where does it all translates into ‘Oliver and Felicity should be together’” Laurel asked. 

“Oliver is jealous as fuck of everyone who as much as talks to Felicity, including yours truly. He always scowls whenever he catches us talking, despite my very truthful claims that I am a reformed one woman man. Secondly, I have caught him looking at her like a man looks at his woman, staking claim and warning other men off. He hovers around her and does things for her which he has never done for the girls he dated like getting her coffee every day exactly the way she likes and getting her macaroons from the Parisian bakery she so likes. I do think he is very much into her but for some reason or the other he is afraid to make a move. Felicity too has a major crush on him that is why she is fidgety around him but is afraid to rock the boat so she does not say anything. I bet she is waiting for Oliver to realize how amazing she is for him so she wants to be available and not tied up with another guy, hence no one goes beyond second date,” Tommy explained his theory about his two friends. 

“So what you are saying is that you cannot wait for them to realize on their own that they like each other but wants to expedite it all by making Oliver jealous of another man who would be so perfect that any mortal man would be jealous of him. At the same time, you don’t want this other guy to win Felicity over completely and irrevocably because while you are setting Felicity up with another supposedly perfect man, you are indirectly playing a wingman to your best friend and want him to get the girl he does not even realize he wants am I right?” Laurel has a mischievous smile on her face. 

“You are a smart woman, no wonder I am so in love with you,” Tommy gets up to kiss Laurel. 

“Don’t worry boyfriend, I think I have the perfect guy in mind for Felicity. Plus, it would be so much fun seeing Oliver squirm and playing god and setting them up, if it works out, we can always tell their children that they owe their existence to us,” Laurel was literally rubbing her hands with glee. 

#####

It was the day of the high school reunion and Felicity was grateful to Tommy that he kept Laurel away from her and let her work in the basement instead of dragging her to the party where she thought she would feel just as awkward as she did in back in high school. But now that she is done with her work, she was regretting not going because it would have been fun with her friends and even though she would never confess it in front of either Laurel or Tommy, part of her wanted them to make her go because come on, who is NOT curious about their high school class mates. Now that she has gotten rid of her braces, discovered hair styling products and has a well paid job with a reputable firm, she might have felt differently about socializing but it was too late anyways. 

Felicity was done with her work for the night and was discussing the merits of using Mozzarella, Cheddar, Parmesan and Ricotta cheese on a pizza all together with Diggle who seemed at a loss about the culinary distinction of different types of cheese when Tommy climbed down to the basement and waved them both a hello. 

“Hey, what are you doing here and by here I mean not the basement but here, like in the club. I thought you would be at the reunion party with Laurel,” Felicity asked. 

“Well, it was a boring party and even Laurel realized that adults’ drinking from paper cups in a high school’s basketball court is not the social event she thought it would be. We rounded up some of her friends and got them all to come down here. I mean what’s the point of having your boyfriend run the hottest club in town if you can’t get an impromptu party started. Everyone is upstairs and I have been sent by Laurel to bring you upstairs, so don’t make any excuse and let me escort you upstairs” Tommy said and extended his arm with a flourish. 

“Oh Tommy, I would have loved to come but I came straight from work and am so not ready for a night out in a club, look at me, I am only fit to attend a Jane Austen book club meeting, not a party thrown by Tommy Merlyn at Verdant!” Felicity looked down at her Silver flats, opaque tights, grey shift dress, black cardigan and pouted. 

“Loose the tights and cardigan and you are good to go,” Tommy cast and expert eye on her and suggested. 

Felicity liked his idea and all of a sudden, she was inspired and happy to go to the party. 

“You go upstairs, I will be there in ten minutes,” she sent Tommy upstairs and looked back at Diggle with imploring eyes, “John, can you be a darling and get me my gym bag from the car, I need to get ready for a party.”

“Don’t tell me you carry a party dress in your gym bag,” Dig raised his eye brows. 

“I am odd but I am not that odd. Of course I don’t carry a dress in my bag, just get it for me while I freshen up my lipstick, will you?” she asked again and threw her car keys at Diggle who expertly caught them and headed upstairs. 

Felicity headed to the washroom, quickly washed her face, took off her cardigan and tights and shook her hair free of her pony tail. She contemplated it for a minute and then decided to change her trademark fuchsia lipstick for a deep red one and put back her glasses on. 

She saw Diggle with her gym bag when she came out all freshened up, she thanked him and took the bag from his hands and unzipped it. What came out of it was something Diggle was not prepared for. Apart from a track suit and a couple of hand towels, the bag had five different pair of shoes. It had a pair of bright green converse, nude slip ons, a pair of maroon boots with a relatively modest 3 inches heel, pink colored trainers, and a pair of sinfully beautiful 5 inches high peep toed black shoes. 

“You carry a shoe store in your gym bag?” Diggle asked her all wide eyed looking inside her bag. 

“Well a girl can’t be too prepared and the right shoe can make a whole lot of difference, I always carry different types of shoes for any shoe emergency,” she took out the black peep toes and looked at them with affection. 

“Seriously Felicity, no one ever gets a ‘shoe emergency’, and 5 pairs, you may need one extra pair of shoes but five!” Diggle rolled his eyes twice during that one sentence. 

“I and every other girl I know get those shoe emergencies from time to time, it’s always recommended to be well prepared. I need all 5 pairs and more. For example, I can wear converse if I feel like a stroll in the park after work, trainers for the few occasions I make use of the gym membership my boss gave me last Christmas, boots in case it rains and I have to run any errands, the nudes for official meetings where my ballet slippers won’t cut and peep toes for the odd evenings when I get to go out, like now. I have needed change of shoes for all those things in the past, hence all these emergency supplies,” she points at the shoes in her bag and smiles at Dig as if making him understand this situation has made all the difference in the world. 

She slips them on and thanked Diggle once again for getting her bag from the car and told him that she will probably see him the next day and went upstairs to see the crowd.  
Half an hour later, Oliver, who was not supposed to come to the club that day because he was spending time with his family came down to the basement and caught her leaving the place. 

######

“Hey Oliver, I thought you were not coming in today, what happened, is everything alright?” Diggle asked. 

“Yeah, everything is good, I just decided to get some training in, you go home and I too will leave in an hour or so” Oliver said nonchalantly. 

When he came down and saw Felicity’s purse and her gym bag lying on the ground next to her chair in front of the computers but no Felicity in sight, he turned around and asked Diggle who was about to step outside, “Where is Felicity?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope some of you are still with me in this story, it would be great if you can leave comments or suggestions. 
> 
> I don't know why but I always thought Felicity would be a shoe person :)


	4. The Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity finally attends the reunion and there is a billionaire who decided to crash that party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Oliver is forced to acknowledge his feelings, thanks to good ol' Tommy. Everyone should have a friend like that in their lives - the ones who make you see the light :)

Oliver did not know how to react when he found out that Felicity was upstairs with Tommy. He was pissed at his friend who is leading her on, he was pissed at Felicity who despite all her smartness can’t see through Tommy’s playboy ways and is falling for his charms and most of all he was pissed at himself for actually giving a damn about the situation. Actually he was just pissed at himself for feeling this way about the whole Felicity and Tommy situation but he wanted to blame everyone and everything around him. He tried to work out but he was too agitated, he fiddled with the computers for a bit but later left them alone because he did not want to incur Felicity’s wrath. After randomly wasting the longest 15 minutes of his life, he decided to put on a suit and crash Tommy’s party because that is what billionaire playboys do, especially when they happen to own the club. 

When he entered the main floor, he spotted Tommy by the bar in the upper deck. He was standing between two blonde women perched on the stools. As he stepped closer he noticed that one of the blonde women was Felicity and he stopped in his tracks. She was hopped up on a stool wearing a sleeveless shift dress in grey with sky high heels, endless legs, relaxed unbound hair, her trade mark glasses, a glass of red wine in her hands and a beaming smile on her face. Felicity looked beautiful – real and ethereal at the same time – if that was possible. She and the other girl were laughing their heads off at something Tommy just said. He was conflicted whether he should watch her from afar and enjoy seeing her relaxed or if he should go and see her up close. In the end, there was no contest; he was just drawn to Felicity and he had to go though for the life of him he could not rationalize his decisions to himself at that time. 

“See, all those romantic comedies are onto something, if the girl hates you – or in this case, punch you in the gut – chances are she is going to be the love of your life,” Felicity was laughing and tried to muss Tommy’s hair who moved out of her range. 

“Honestly, I will never mock Meg Ryan and ‘When Harry met Sally’ ever again,” the other blonde girl affectionately patted Tommy’s hand and said, “Tommy here has lead me to believe otherwise, such perseverance is commendable.” 

Oliver was now full blown pissed. What is with Tommy that every woman was eating out of his hands? There was his lawyer girlfriend who he is playing house with, then there is Felicity who can’t keep her hands off of him and now this other tall blonde woman was hanging on to his arms. Has Tommy Merlyn turned into an even bigger babe magnet since he lost his trust fund, Oliver wondered? 

Oliver moved towards the bar and decided to turn on the charm. He approached the trio and lightly touched Felicity’s arm. When Felicity turned, she saw the playboy billionaire Oliver with a 1000 watt smile. 

“Fancy running into you here, at the floor, I thought you never mingle with us lesser mortals,” Oliver looks at Felicity. 

“Err, I am not really doing the whole clubbing thing here. This is more like my high school reunion which got shifted to Verdant because Tommy has been too kind,” she looked back at Tommy and smiled. 

“By the way, this is Leena, Leena Jones, one of the three people I was friends with at school. She is a very talented writer and is working on her second book and got a movie deal on her first one though if you look at her, you would think she is a movie star herself. Leena, this is Oliver Queen, my boss. Well technically not my boss because I do not work directly under him but I do work for Queen Consolidated and his name is on the building so he is kind of my boss – indirectly. I also help him here at the club which how I met with Tommy and reconnected with Laurel and am finally meeting you after all these years,” staying true to her character, Felicity rambled on. 

“Then I guess we have to thank Mr. Queen for getting you to work here so that you can meet Tommy and through him the rest of us,” Leena smiled and shook hands with Oliver.  
“Please call me Oliver and I am not really her boss, if anything she is this special friend who is helping me find my feet. I am indebted to her for taking pity on me because staying out of the loop for five years really does a number on your social and technological skills, I would be totally lost without her” Oliver laughed and rubbed Felicity’s arm again and placed himself directly behind her in a way that her left arm and parts of her back were in direct contact with his chest. 

Tommy who was watching the whole exchange asked Oliver if he would want a drink and Oliver who never took a drink during his rounds on the club floors asked for his usual. Tommy realized that Oliver intended to stick around and was very happy that Oliver is hooked even before they laid out their elaborate plan. 

While Tommy, Leena and Oliver were busy in small talk, Felicity was quietly drinking her wine and was wondering about Oliver’s odd behavior. For starters, he was all happiness and sunshine and not his moody broody self. Secondly he was standing a little too close to her and talking to everyone from behind her ear making everything he says an intimate caress on her neck – at least it felt that way to her. Thirdly, he was still rubbing her arm as if staking claim to her which was kind of useless because Oliver is not really interested in her and the only other man around was Tommy who was so into Laurel that he has eyes for no other woman, unless he thought Leena was lesbian and was coming onto her and probably wanted to save her the embarrassment. 

Without thinking that her theory can be flawed, he turned into Oliver’s chest and blurted, “Leena is straight you know, so you don’t really need to do this … this thing.” 

Tommy literally choked on his scotch at that while Leena laughed nervously and asked, “Where did that come from?” 

Oliver who was in the middle of some an old anecdote about Tommy’s frat boy days pulled back and just looked at her. This girl continues to surprise him. No other girl would have behaved to the attentions of a charming beaming Oliver Queen by presenting another woman to him and telling him that she is straight. He smiled a little and shook his head and asked, “What has that got to with Tommy pulling the biggest scam in the history _Sigma Alpha Epsilon_?” he asked Felicity and then looked at Leena and put his hand on her arm and said, “Not that there is anything wrong if you are gay.” 

“But I am not, I am engaged,” she lifted her left hand and shoved her ring finger with a huge diamond on both Felicity’s and Oliver’s face, “to a man,” and then turned to scan the room when she spotted her fiancé, “who is on his way here.” 

Tommy, Felicity and Oliver all looked towards the direction she pointed out and saw Laurel walking in with two extremely good looking men. One was a tall black man in his thirties wearing an impeccable grey suit and four day old stubble and the other was this tall, well built, sandy haired, green eyed man in a sports jacket about the same age as Tommy and Oliver. 

“Hey Leena, Your fiancé just got here and he was looking for you,” Laurel smiled at the group and before she could’ve introduced Leena’s fiancé to anyone else, Leena hooked her arm with the man who could be a younger version of Idris Alba and said, “I am thirsty, let’s get out of here.” 

Laurel who was lost at this abrupt departure of her high school best friend raised her hands in a gesture that asked what and all three of them looked at her and then at her companion with blank expressions. It was Tommy who recovered first and introduced himself. 

“Hi, I am Tommy Merlyn and I run this club,” he shook hands with the new guy. 

“Yes, he’s the club manager but he also happens to be my boy friend, Laurel chirped in, “This is Daniel, you have met his older brother Nathaniel who works with me,” she looked at Tommy, “Daniel is also a lawyer, but unlike his brother and I, he does not fight criminals, only big corporations. His specialty is environmental law. He has spent two years in Nepal and Bangladesh working on a water conservation projects for World Bank and he just got back to Starling City. He also played football for Duke and helps his mother run their family’s charity fund for cancer research,” Laurel was almost preening as if telling Tommy that she has indeed found this paragon of perfection who played college football, is a lawyer saving the planet, is from a rich family but he also cares about the less fortunate and works at the family’s charity trust and is a good son who helps his mother with her philanthropic pursuits. He was of course extremely good looking in a sporty, earthy way. 

Daniel threw back his head and laughed at Laurel’s introduction. “You make me sound like a profile on match.com, the only thing missing was that I like to take long walks on the beach during full moon.” Everyone laughed at that – perhaps not everyone – Oliver only contributed a tight smile. 

“Do you?” Felicity asked. 

“Do I what?” Daniel was still smiling. 

“Take long walks on the beach during the full moon?” Felicity asked and both Tommy and Laurel exchanged a look of triumph, before Daniel could have responded, she realized that she has put her foot in her mouth again and was mortified, “oh God, please don’t respond to that. I think I have outdone myself by making one awkward statement after the other today and I usually make more awkward statements in a week than most people do in their lifetime so that is saying something. Although some people never make any awkward statements – people like Laurel who is a lawyer and always says the right thing but you too are a lawyer and you know how lawyers talk and I think I should just stop.” Felicity turned a deep shade of red. 

Laurel who still had no idea what transpired in her absence laughed a little nervously while Tommy was trying to control her laughter, it was Daniel who came to her rescue.  
“I am always game when a pretty girl asks me about long walks in the beach,” he moved forwards and took Felicity’s hand and kissed her knuckles with a flourish. If it was possible, Felicity blushed some more. Tommy stepped in at that and introduced Felicity and Oliver to Daniel and asked him for a drink. Daniel wanted a beer. 

Both Laurel and Tommy moved away from Daniel and Felicity to give them a chance to speak with each other with a bit of privacy but Oliver remained by Felicity’s side and refused to budge. When fifteen minutes passed and Oliver still was standing behind felicity acting like her personal bodyguard, Laurel called onto Tommy to redress the situation.  
Tommy approached the three people by the bar and saw that Felicity and Daniel were both on the stools chatting nineteen to dozen about …. Astronomy! As far as Tommy was concerned there was no way he would ever talk to a pretty girl about planets, meteors, galaxies and satellites when meeting for the first time, but who is he to judge them, may be Felicity’s inner nerd has found a soul mate. In any case, it is a very safe topic of conversation in presence of a glowering man throwing nasty looks at Daniel. Tommy had to hand it to Daniel that he was not fazed by Oliver’s presence at all and was hell bent on treating him like a prop or a piece furniture. Not many people dare to react to Oliver like that. He has a feeling that he may want to hang onto the guy, if only to irritate Oliver, but first thing first and he had to get Oliver away if he does not want to sleep on the couch tonight. 

Oliver did not want to move when Tommy arrived and only the mention of a trouble at the basement did the trick. Felicity too wanted to come when she heard about the trouble in the basement but Tommy put his foot down and told her to enjoy her reunion party and that between him and Oliver, they will manage. 

Oliver wanted to go downstairs but Tommy grabbed his arm and took him to his office. 

“What is wrong with you man?” Tommy asked. 

“What do you mean?” Oliver feigned ignorance. 

“Do you like Felicity?” Tommy came and asked directly. 

“No. I mean she is nice and quite likeable and I do like her but not like that, we just work together,” Oliver was evasive and was not looking at Tommy. 

“So what were you doing out there, huh? Were you just practicing those big brother/bodyguard dirty looks to any prospective guy within 100 feet of Felicity so that you can use them on Thea’s future dates because even I felt the heat. Or were they a jealous boy friend looks who can’t stand another man looking at his girl and don’t tell me that I am wrong because it had to either of the two. So what is it, do you think of her as your little sister or the woman of your dreams?” Tommy was mad as hell at Oliver. 

“You got it all wrong Tommy, she works with me and I was just concerned, that guy looked a little creepy, I mean what adult would wear hair like Justin Beiber? Oliver decided to stick with his story. 

“Bullshit, and Daniel is perfect, Laurel and I have checked him ten times over, he is just what she needs,” Tommy was so livid that he blurted it out that they were setting Felicity up with Daniel. To cover it up he went on full aggression mode, “and since when do you know who Justin Beiber is, last I checked you were against the club having an official twitter account because you couldn’t understand it.” 

“Thea made me sit through an hour of something on him and she had very strong opinions about why he works,” Oliver too decided to talk about Justin Beiber because that was safer than discussing his feelings for Felicity and how he feels about his best friend setting her up with a man that was not him. 

Tommy had cooled down a bit by then and he put his hand on Oliver’s shoulder, “If you like her, tell her how you feel. Nothing will make me happier if the two of you get together. You are my man and I am extremely fond of her – perhaps as fond of her as I am of Thea – but you gotta man up and tell her.” 

Oliver did not say anything but just looked at him telling him to not meddle in his affairs. 

“Fine, I get it, you don’t like her. Then let her get on with her life and date whomever she wants. Stop hovering around her and act as if you will do bodily harm to any guy who as much as look at her. She spends far too much time doing your bidding anyways, with no compensation or appreciation, I might add. If she can find some romance, let her be, you owe it to her. You can screw up your life, it would hurt me, but it’s your call. However, I won’t let you screw up hers by making her wait for you indefinitely,” Tommy stormed out of his office leaving Oliver to ponder over his actions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, don't we all need a little Tommy in our lives?
> 
> Please read and review, your feedback means a lot to me.


	5. The Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it hits Oliver hard when Tommy berated him for not manning up, but is it too late?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, this is AU but I am keeping quite a lot of things cannon, like undertaking did happen and Malcolm is dead and as this takes place a little over two years after the end of season 1, Moira is out of the prison but she is forbidden to take part in any businesses and stays at home.  
> Tommy lost all his fortune with the Undertaking and now lives with Laurel and is happy managing the club.  
> Laurel is working in the DA's office, Roy works at the club and Thea is in college.

It has been five weeks since her reunion party and Oliver was acting a tad weird – well not exactly weird but that was not his usual behavior. Gone was the moody and broody guy and in his place was a man so nice and agreeable that he would not argue about anything or stomp down on any idea. Felicity wanted to strike off another name on the list through a cyber attack and not through a visit by the hood. When she presented her idea, she was sure that Oliver would strike it down but much to her amazement, he agreed to do the things her way. When both Dig and Felicity looked at him in astonishment, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “What? We are a team, if you have a better plan, we will do it your way.” Felicity wanted to point out that she has had better plans in the past and she always had to fight for them but held her tongue. 

Another day, Oliver wanted to go out all by him as the hood to take out a group of smugglers but Diggle pointed out that there would be two different clusters of baddies on the same location, and suggested that he too should hood up to deal with the other set. Not only he agreed but also asked Felicity to be their getaway driver. Felicity is still not over the shock because after working with the hood for 28 months, it was the first time Oliver suggested that she be out in the field with them, she either had to fight her way to be part of actual operations or she was required to do something that Dig and Oliver cannot do like something complex and technical. It was the first that she was part of the mission where no technical or math skills were required and it all came from Oliver. 

It was not all, he actually brought food down the lair twice for the team and would often get coffee for Felicity whenever he comes down to the lair, and when they ran into AJ at Big Belly Burger one afternoon, he actually crouched down and taught him a self defense move, something old surly Oliver would’ve avoided at all costs. In addition, he was being extra nice to Felicity. Not only he made sure that she got enough nights off to make a go of her budding relationship with Daniel; he gave her front seat tickets to ‘Chicago’ which was her favorite so she can have some quality down time with Daniel. He sort of gave his seal of approval to Tommy & Felicity’s friendship and would often smile at them when he would catch them and sometime, he would even stop by and crack a joke or two – always at Tommy’s expense. Though Felicity expected a backlash when she suggested that they all should just take a weekend off, not only did he let Dig and Felicity off, he himself took off for Coast city with Thea for a weekend of R&R by the sea. When her mom and sister visited her for a shopping trip, Oliver not only took them all out for lunch, he basically won them over by booking a personal shopper for her sister. 

All of that was a little disconcerting for Felicity but most bewildering aspect of this change was that Oliver was touching her – all the time. When he would come in, he would greet Diggle with a nod but he would either touch Felicity’s arm or her shoulder to let her know he is in ( as if her Oliver radars were not sensitive enough already). When they would share meals, he would always makes it a point to ask Felicity for something and then would brush his fingers with her, he would always pat her shoulders when she finds something for him and he would always have his hand on her back when he would accompany her to the parking lot and he would not let Diggle accompany her. He would always step up and would offer to be with her willingly – whether it is to escort her or to team up with her on missions – something he never bothered with before. Had it been anyone else, she would have taken it as casual courtesy but Oliver has always made it a point to not touch her and now he is touching her constantly which is driving her crazy. She liked this attention because what living breathing straight woman would not want attention from a good looking man and Oliver is nothing if not extremely good looking, she does not get it because this sudden change makes no sense at all. 

\------------- 

Tommy noticed that change too and is taking all the credit for that. Whenever he chats with Felicity, he noticed that instead of glowering like he used to, Oliver would stop by and chat with them and laugh with them. He would also find excuses to sit next to Felicity or touch her. It was like he wanted to make sure that all her senses are filled with him; he was always in front of her, talking with her and touching her. To her credit, Felicity did a pretty decent job of acting unaffected but there were times when she would let herself respond a little to his attentions, like last night. Felicity stopped by in his office in her way out and while they were chatting, Oliver stepped in. Felicity tensed and said that she would leave the two of them but Oliver stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, asked her to wait for him and went out. Exactly three and half minutes later, he was back with a bottle of 1990 Francois Raveneau Les Clos and three glasses, looked at Felicity and said, “You like red wine, I brought you one of my personal favourites.” They both kept looking at each other and only looked away when Tommy cleared his throat. Oliver looked at him and laughed, as if knowing full well how gob smacked Tommy is with his change of attitude. They stayed in his room well into the night, drinking that bottle and reminiscing about the time when Tommy rented an entire football field just so he could play "strip kickball" with a group of ladies; Felicity was fascinated by their former hedonistic lives and listened with rapt attention. He called a driver, escorted her to the parking lot and made sure she gets driven home and stayed back in the basement to kick and punch some dummies. Tommy knew why he needed to do that. 

No matter how happy was Tommy with this change, Laurel was not too pleased with him when he had that heart to heart with Oliver about Felicity. She may not mind meddling in his affairs – after all Oliver is Tommy’s best friend and de facto brother– but she draws a line at actual confrontation. Tommy obviously had no such reservations and repeatedly said that he would not mind beating him with a baseball bat if he can make him see how perfect Felicity is for him. 

Laurel has asked him twice why he is so hell bent on making sure that Felicity ends up with Oliver, especially now that she is dating Daniel and seemed quite happy with him. Tommy hates the fact that he cannot tell his girl friend about Oliver’s secret identity and how that almost destroyed them and that Felicity is the one who saved his friendship with Oliver after that revelation. She did not know who Tommy was but she knew that he was important to Oliver so she made every effort to salvage that relationship to save Oliver from going over the edge, no woman makes that kind of effort for a man unless she is in love with him. She has worked tirelessly with Oliver without any expectations, stood by him through good times and bad times and helped him save his family fortune after the ill-fated series of events that followed leveling of parts of Glades that sent Oliver’s mother to prison and left his father dead. And all through the series of crises and chaos, she kept his secret. 

Tommy was sure that no other woman would or could do all for his friend and he was also sure that Oliver would never let any other woman be as close to him as Felicity is, that is why he cannot understand why Oliver would not jump at the chance to be with Felicity. He cannot say all that to his girl friend so he says what he can, “Trust me Laurel, if there is anyone who can read Oliver Queen and his reaction to women, it is me. I know that he is into her, and I have always known if he was into any woman way before he ever did. He is an idiot like that and I am obviously a very smart and intuitive man.” 

Laurel laughed at that and demanded that Tommy should use some of that intuition and must figure out what Laurels wants. 

\----- 

Contrary to his calm appearance, Oliver has been agitated. Whatever Tommy said that day hit him hard, but by the time he was done with his inner turmoil and decided that he should give this thing with Felicity a chance, she had already been out on two dates with that Daniel guy and seemed quite smitten with him. Oliver obviously hated him and called him a phony tree hugger, when Tommy mentioned him once. Tommy just laughed at his face and said that just because he is an environmental lawyer, that does not make him a tree hugger. Oliver just scowled in response. 

One evening when he came in and found out that Felicity was out on a date – her fourth one – with the guy, he knew he has to do something. He dismissed Diggle for the day and pulled out the app that tracked Felicity’s phone. He found out that she was somewhere in China Town and rushed after her. He did not even bother putting on his hood, just took out his car and followed the mark on the tracker. Felicity was in one of the more upscale establishments in the area, he drove around the block twice to check the neighborhood and then found a nice spot where he can see the entrance of the restaurant Felicity was in. He then sat in his car for an hour and stared at the red spot that was Felicity’s phone. While staring at that red tiny dot, he became conscious of the fact that he never waited for any woman for that long, especially when the woman in question is dating another man and there is absolutely nothing in it for him. But then this was Felicity and she is the kind of woman that you make exceptions for.

When Felicity and her date came out of the restaurant, Oliver noticed that Felicity’s red Mini Cooper was nowhere in sight. When Daniel handed her a helmet, he realized that she rode with Daniel in his bright red CVO Softail Convertible Harley Davidson – which made Oliver hate him even more. The bastard acts like an environmentalist angel who is saving baby seals and Amazonian jungles while making sure that no one dumps anything hazardous in the oceans but rides a big bad monstrosity like that red convertible Harley. He was also miffed with Felicity who lectured him for his carbon foot prints whenever he used his private jet or rode his fuel guzzling Ducati Diavel but gladly jumped behind Daniel on his bike and held on to his waist as he rode on. 

Oliver followed them to the converted brownstone where Felicity lived on the second floor apartment. Much to his chagrin, Daniel followed Felicity inside and when he did not come out for next 3 hours, Oliver realized that Daniel was not leaving Felicity’s apartment that night and went back to the lair. Needless to say he punched, kicked and arrowed everything in sight and when Diggle came in the morning, he saw Oliver sprawled on the couch face down and everything in disarray. He never asked him what happened and just straightened everything out; sometimes you don’t need to ask. 

That night Oliver vowed that he would not go down without a fight, Felicity may be dating that other guy but Oliver intends to woo her. It would be difficult because wooing a woman as unpredictable is Felicity is not easy and it would be downright difficult when he is not the man she is dating but if Oliver is good at anything; it is taking challenges head on. He also knew that he will make her sit behind him in his Ducati one of these days. He just cannot live with the fact that Felicity rode with Daniel but never with him. He had to redress the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next one are not sequential. It means that events that are mentioned here in the passing like Felicity's family visit will be featured in the next chapter so stay tuned. 
> 
> Please do leave a review, your feedback is MOST IMPORTANT.


	6. Quoting Starwars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gets her second bike ride .... in as many days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the few short chapters detailing instances where Oliver woos Felicity without actually dating her. I will be posting the other ones shortly.

Oliver got the chance to redress that situation the very next day. 

Diggle and Oliver went on a mission – the old style – where they put the fear of God in the criminals and Diggle decided to head home straight from the mission. When Oliver arrived back, he saw Felicity, ready to leave with her hand bag on her shoulder and her tablet in her hand; he wanted to chat and unwind but did not say anything. They said goodbyes and Oliver just sprawled on the couch in the corner. 

Exactly two minutes later he heard the code key at the lair door and he got up to see who is coming down. He was surprised to see it was Felicity. 

“Everything okay?” He asked. 

“Well, for starters, my car won’t start and when I looked for my phone in my bag to call a cab, I realized that I left it on my desk to recharge, so I came down to pick it up,” Felicity looked for her phone and then went to grab it. 

“You were in such a hurry that you left your phone! Hot date?” he raised his eyebrows. Her phone and her tablet were extensions of her hands, its unimaginable that she would leave either of those gadgets behind. 

“Not really, unless you call my rendezvous with my washer-dryer a hot date. I have no clean clothes left in my closet. I either need to do my laundry today or buy new clothes if I plan to look presentable at work tomorrow,” she laughed. 

“Don’t call the cab then, I will drop you off, just give me a minute to change” Oliver headed towards the washrooms. 

“But it is out of your way,” Felicity protested. 

“Come on, what’s a little detour for friends anyways, if you promise to behave, I will even buy you dinner,” Oliver’s sound was muffled; he was probably changing his shirt.  
He emerged in jeans and double layered grey Henley and picked up his jacket and keys. When he saw Felicity not moving, he came to stand behind her and put his hand on the small of her back to push her towards the door. 

Felicity gave in and decided to come with him but balked at the idea the minute she saw Oliver moving towards his bike. 

“I am not riding that thing with you; I think I should call a cab,” she said. 

She probably would have ridden with him if she had never been on a bike before but she only sat with Daniel yesterday, and she now knows that not only she would have to sit really close to him, she will also have to hold on to him, something she cannot risk doing – not with Oliver. 

Oliver was miffed, she had no issues riding a bike with that environmental weasel a day earlier but she does not want to sit with him. He wanted to throw that to her but kept it to himself because he does not want to come across as the crazy stalker who followed her on her date and then followed her to her home with the said date. 

“I am afraid Diggle has left with the car, and I am not letting you take a cab through Glades this late, you are either sleeping on the couch at the basement and going to work in the same clothes or you are coming with me,” Oliver’s tone left no room for bargain. 

She was not really afraid of a bike ride, heck she rode one only the other night, but she was afraid of sitting that closely with Oliver, especially this new attentive Oliver who shoots her strange looks, touches her all the time and smiles at her like she is the best thing since sliced bread. When she kept looking between Oliver and his bike with a hesitant expression, Oliver handed her the spare helmet and said, “I find your lack of faith disturbing, Felicity Smoak.”

“Oliver Queen, did you just quote Anakin Skywalker, you closeted Starwars fan,” Felicity was struck dumb with a helmet hanging from her right hand and her tablet from her left hand. 

“I do not admit quoting anyone,” Oliver laughed and took her hand bag and her tablet from her hand, put her tablet in her bag and slung it across his shoulder as if it was the most natural thing for a man to sling a woman’s bag across his shoulder, sat on the bike, started it and motioned her to sit behind him. Felicity who probably would have resisted a bit more was undone by the image of him clad in a bomber jacket, astride his Ducati with bright yellow ladies bag across his shoulder and like a zombie who has no control over her body, she climbed his Ducati behind him and held onto him tight. 

He rode fast and managed to get her to her home in record time, helped her off the bike, climbed two flights of stairs with her, handed back her tablet and bag, mock saluted her and left her on the door, like a gentleman. Felicity, who was still recovering from her twenty minute long proximity forced by a motorbike ride could barely respond with a half wave and closed the door. 

She somehow managed to reach the couch in her living room before she collapsed. 

Why was Oliver behaving the way he did. She had to be blind and deaf to not notice the change in Oliver’s behavior. He is attentive and sweet like he is fascinated by her and he touches her all the time but it never went beyond courteous and she berated herself for getting all flustered over innocent touches like a hand on her back or a squeeze of shoulders. 

He has been giving her mixed signals which frustrated Felicity like nothing else. At times he acts like he is interested in her – as a girl – not just as his girl Friday, but then he gives her front row seats to a musical so that she can enjoy her date with another man which is the exact polar opposite of interested. 

While she was telling herself off for seeing things that are not there, her door bell rings. She froze mid sentence in an argument with herself. Was Oliver back? Should she even open the door? But she knew that if it was Oliver, she would open the door so she got up and yanked open the door with expectant eyes. 

At the other end of the door, there was no Oliver Queen, nor any other person for that matter, but a brown bag. She picked up the bag and gingerly opened it. It contained a plastic bowl of Greek Salad, a skewered kebab in pita wrap and a note from Oliver Queen written on a napkin, all it said was, “Here is food to help your date with your washer dryer, O.” 

Felicity smiled at that and kept smiling during the next three hours and two cycles of laundry. 

\----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is more like a drabble but they all feed into the story.  
> I know there was no Tommy in this one but he will be there in the next chapter.


	7. The confession and the approval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn some more of Felicity's back story here and Laurels gets a shock - a rather pleasant shock.  
> I don't own anything, everything belongs to DC Entertainment and CW.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for a longer gap between updates. To make up for it, I am posting a longer chapter :)

The next week ran smoothly. Felicity would come in everyday after work, some days she would stay in till late and have dinner with Dig and Oliver and a couple of days, she would leave early to spend time with Daniel. Oliver would grimace and murder a couple of practice dummies on those days, but that was it. Dig would look at him, smirk but not say anything. He is a smart man and knew that there would be no point in saying anything at all. 

On Friday, Felicity came, ran a couple of checks and decided to leave just after an hour. Oliver who was getting ready to make an appearance upstairs came out and saw her with her coat and bag and asked, “You are leaving already?”

“Yes, I need to take care of a few things at home and I am afraid I won’t be in during the weekend. Do call me if it is urgent but please try not to get in situations where you have to call me,” Felicity said looking between Diggle and Oliver. 

Oliver wanted to ask her so many questions but felt it was inappropriate to do so, especially with Dig in attendance. That man looks way too deeply into things as it is and he does not want to hand him further ammunition. He was surprised when Dig took pity on him and asked Felicity if she was going out of town for the weekend. When she said that she was not going anywhere, Oliver was somewhat relieved. At least she would not be spending the next 48 hours with the lawyer she's dating, even though they have been dating exclusively for a good six weeks, he cannot bring himself to refer to Daniel as her boyfriend. 

Though Oliver knew she was not going out of town with Daniel, he kind of thought that she would be spending the weekend with him that is why he was shocked when he heard Felicity’s voice when he walked into Big Belly Burger before noon the next day. Diggle who was following him almost collided with Oliver when he abruptly stopped, when he followed Oliver’s gaze he saw three blonde heads looking down at something on the table with Carly standing next to them looking at a brochure of some sort, going gaga over it. Dig walked up to Carly to say hello and Oliver followed him after a few seconds to the table. 

Felicity took one look at them and then closed her eyes. Here are the two people she did not want see during the weekend but then she was sitting in the fast food joint run by the girl friend of one of those men, what was she thinking? In her defense, she thought she would be out of the place before noon and Oliver usually does not make any public appearance before lunch time.

Carly was excited to see Dig and introduced him to everyone sitting in there. 

“This is John, my boy friend, Felicity and John work together and that is how I know her. John, this is Felicity’s mother Esther and her sister Faith, they are visiting Felicity this weekend,” Carly introduced Diggle to both the older and petite version of Felicity with short hair and a taller and more glamorized version of Felicity. The family resemblance was uncanny. Diggle shook hands with both the women and nodded at Felicity with a question in his eyes. 

Faith however was more interested in making Oliver’s acquaintance who was standing a little further back and raised her hand to shake his. “Hi, I am Faith and you are…?”  
Before Oliver could have said anything, Felicity jumped in. “This is Oliver, my boss, and Oliver, this is my mom Esther and my sister Faith.” 

Oliver moved forward and shook hands with both Faith and Esther. 

“I am not really her boss; we work together on some of the projects,” Oliver beamed his thousand watt smile at Faith. 

“Well not technically, because what you know about IT can fit on the top of a matchstick, but you are the boss – the big boss whose name is on the building,” Felicity rambled on. 

“Ah, you must be Mr. Queen – the man who returned home after half a decade, and Felicity, he is definitely more than your boss. You have never introduced me to any of your bosses with their first names before,” Faith shrugged. 

Oliver chuckled at that. This no brain to mouth filter is obviously a family thing. 

Felicity, who probably did not want to prolong her embarrassment, got up and prompted everyone, “Faith, I have never introduced you to any of my bosses before. In any case, let's get going, we have to keep our appointment, I have already paid for everything in advance and they have no refund policy.” 

“Just gimme a couple of minutes to ditch the apron and I am all yours,” Carly said while running towards the counter. 

Diggle turned to look at his girlfriend and then looked at Felicity. “Carly is going with you guys?” 

Before Felicity could’ve said anything, Faith jumped in. “I am going to join my husband in Dubai in a couple of weeks time so Felicity arranged this ladies weekend with me and mom. We got in here last evening and she took us to see this play which was okay and then we went to this awesome sushi place by the bay. You know Felicity, how meticulous she is, so she planned everything in advance and today would be even better. We are spending the day at a spa and Carly is coming with us to make the quartet. It will be so much fun.” Faith clapped in glee and both Oliver and Diggle were looking at her with their jaws hanging. 

“Quartet!” Diggle obviously was flabbergasted with Hurricane Faith. 

“They called yesterday and said that they will be handing out discounts if we go in pairs, so I suggested that Felicity should bring in one of her friends and make it a group of four,” Felicity’s mom explained.

“Yeah, I mean she spent far too much time on her feet here so I thought we should take her out, I hope you would have no issues with it” Felicity was twisting her fingers when she looked up at Diggle. 

“Of course not, it is really sweet of you guys, I am sure she will enjoy her day out,” Diggle said. 

Felicity saw Carly walking in so she said her goodbyes to the men and walked towards the door. Esther and Faith followed her and just when they were about to leave, Faith walked back and leaned in to Oliver, “I hope I get to see you one more time before I leave, we must talk.” 

Oliver nodded and smiled and waved at the group of the ladies. He also wondered about what Felicity’s sister wanted to talk to him about. 

Oliver did not see Felicity for the rest of day, nor did he see her for most of the Sunday but she was never far from his thoughts. 

\--- 

Around 8.00 pm on Sunday, Oliver was training all by himself in the lair when he got a cryptic text from Tommy. All it said was, “Get here ASAP, I need reinforcement. And by here I mean at Felicity’s.”

Oliver was perturbed, he tried calling both Felicity and Tommy but no one picked their phones. Oliver changed into jeans and charcoal colored Henley and stepped outside. Two minutes later, he came back, picked up a bottle of wine, hopped on his Ducati and raced towards Felicity’s house wondering what happened. 

Before he could ring the bell, the door was opened by a red head in a trench coat who looked ready to get out of her apartment if they keys in her hand and a purse dangling from her shoulder was any indication. 

“Excuse me, I thought this was Felicty Smoak’s apartment,” Oliver was confused. 

“Oh honey, it still is. Come on in,” she waved him in, walked back to the living room with him and announced, “Felicity, I found this guy outside your apartment on my way out, he is looking for you.” With that she turned her back and left. Oliver, who had his helmet in one of his hands and the bottle of wine in the other walked in. The scene that awaited him was not what he expected when he got Tommy’s call. Felicity’s mom was sitting with half closed eyes and a glass of red wine on a chaise lounge with her feet up the coffee table, Felicity and her sister were on the couch, the coffee table was littered with far too many bottles of wine and glasses for just 8.00 pm so they probably started drinking very early and the table was moved aside to make room for Tommy Merlyn who was half sitting and half sprawling on the rug with Laurel sitting at his feet doing something to his toenails. He then noticed that Felicity was massaging Tommy’s head. 

“Oliver my man, you are here,” Tommy looked pleased when he saw Oliver. He then turned to Faith and said, “I told you, my buddy would not leave me by myself, the reinforcement is here.”

Oliver who has moved in to the living room by then asked his friend, “What reinforcement, I only brought a bottle of wine, had I known there would be more people, I would have brought more.”

“Nah, we are good with wine, I only needed you my friend. There are so many women around me, the air is filled with estrogen, I needed testosterone reinforcement and that is you, if you had not come, I probably would have developed boobs or something with the estrogen overdose” Tommy grinned. 

Oliver just looked at him, wondering what happened to Tommy that made him delirious or crazy or both. It was then Laurel explained. Felicity’s mom, Faith, her two cousins who had left already, Tania – the red head who opened the door and was Faith’s best friend, Laurel and Felicity had a rom-com marathon that Sunday afternoon. Around 5.00 pm Tommy Merlyn crashed the party saying that he hardly ever gets to see his girl friend, because she is working all the time. They tried to kick him out but he sprawled in the middle of the living room. In revenge, Felicity and Laurel are treating him like another of their girlfriends. Laurel apparently is painting his toe nails in pastel pink and Felicity was giving him a head rub with jasmine scented oil. Tommy on the other hand is undeterred and looked blissful. 

“Dude, pink toenails? What’s next? Ballet slippers and tutus?” Oliver laughed while looking and the decided to settle next to Tommy and slipped on the rug, imprisoning Felicity’s legs between him and Tommy. 

“OMG, you actually know what a tutu is? I thought you were all brooding silence and grrrr,” wine has further loosened her inhibitions; otherwise she would not have mentioned Oliver going grrr in front of Laurel and her family. 

“Oh Felicity, I wish you had not spent your life with binary numbers and codes and had read some gossip rags in your youth, then you would have known that Oliver caused quite a furore back in the day in the theatre community. He slept with the ballerina Odette in Swan Lake and the actress playing Sophie in Mama Mia during the same week and was photographed with both by paparazzi. Apparently they had this long standing animosity and Oliver only added fuel to that fire. Let’s just say he learnt a lot more about ballerinas than tutus and slippers,” Tommy was relishing telling that story. 

“Oliver Queen, I think you just got more interesting, I am really glad Tommy called you tonight,” Faith said, perched on the corner of the sofa. Oliver turned his neck to look at her, and bumped his head on Felicity’s knee. It took every ounce of self restraint on Felicity’s part to not react to that. 

Oliver gave Faith another one of those mega watt smiles and said, “I am glad to be here,” and he then let his head rest on Felicity’s knee as if that was the most natural place for him to rest his head. Felicity was flustered, so she got up and started picking up the glasses from the coffee table. 

“If I had known that these two will end up here following our movie session, I would have invited Daniel as well,” Felicity said on her way to the kitchen. 

Oliver scowled a bit at the mention of Daniel – like he always do – and before he could’ve mocked something about him, Felicity’s mom Esther, who seemed to be half asleep until now woke up and glared at her, “Felicity Smoak, I did not raise you to be that dependent and clingy girl who can’t seem to do without mentioning her boyfriend every 45 seconds.”

Both Faith and Tommy who were taking a sip off their wine glasses spluttered at that tone. Felicity who was at the kitchen door, dumped the glasses on the counter and raced back with a groaned out “Mom, please, not now, not here.”

Faith who composed herself by then added fuel to the fire and said, “Yeah, we met him only last night, it has not even been 24 hours since we last saw him.” 

“Come on Faith, cut him some slack, he was only trying to impress you guys, and you saw these two clowns yesterday as well, you have no issues seeing them again,” Felicity was this close to stomping her feet. 

“Well you are not dating these guys, so they don’t come under the same scrutiny, plus, I think I love Tommy already, I have already invited him and Laurel to come visit us in Dubai,” Faith languidly stretched on the sofa. 

Felicity’s jaw dropped. “I am your sister, your only sister, your baby sibling and you have not invited me to come visit you and he gets the first invitation. You met him only last night!” Felicity was clearly agitated and it looked like an old issue between the two sisters. Felicity then threw a dirty look at Tommy, who was nudged by Laurel to resolve this. He got up and put his hands on Felicity’s shoulders, she looked at her and it seemed that she was very close to tears so he half pulled her in an embrace and walked her to her room and closed the door behind her. 

Oliver who was quietly witnessing it all sat up straight and looked between Faith and her mother Esther. It broke his heart to see Felicity like this. No matter how much he hated Daniel, he did not like Felicity being publicly chided by her family. When he saw Laurel looking between the two other women as well, he had to ask. “What was that all about?”  
Faith who was staring at her mother then broke her gaze away and had the grace to look sheepish, “I am sorry you guys had to see our family drama, it almost always ends up like this. Mom and I get along fine, Lis and I get along fine, even Lis and mom are okay even though they don't talk much, it is only when the three of us get together sparks fly.”

Both Oliver and Laurel looked at each other and then back at Faith because that did not explain much beyond the fact that they don’t get along when they are all together. 

“Felicity is the smartest of all three of us, even though she is 8 years younger than me and 6 years younger than Ben, our brother. She is so sharp that she was able to do things in grade school that we were unable to do in high school and we are not stupid people. Ben is a distinguished lawyer and I run my own digital design business. Anyways, we have always felt very protective and very proud of our Lis, it was like she was not just mom and dad’s child but ours as well, and she has always been so sweet that she lets us boss her around. Growing up, Felicity was quite a hermit, back in school, Laurel was probably the only friend who ever visited our home. Because she was gifted student and far ahead academically than her peers, she was placed with older kids and ended up being younger than everyone around her both in school and college and consequently did not form close relationships with anyone – especially boys. Mom, being a super feminist always drummed it into her that she does not need men so she kind of isolated herself even more. I was married and Ben was away and we were living our lives so we did not notice that back then. I think she had her first real boyfriend after she graduated from university. When I found out, I encouraged her to meet more people, date more and even tried to hook her up with people, mom on the other hand always discouraged her that she does not necessarily need a man in her life.” 

Laurel who was listening interrupted Faith and asked, “But all that happened in the past, what happened with Daniel and why did she become so angry all of a sudden?” 

“Err, we went out with Daniel last night when we bumped into you guys, he was nice and charming and everything and on our way back, when I asked Felicity how serious it was, she said that she introduced him to us so it has got to be serious. Mom flew off the handle at that and said that she does not need to saddle herself with a man at 24, one day she is in love and next day she would be pregnant with a child and her career would be over.”

Laurel raised her hand and said, “Whoa, stop it right there, she only met him a couple of months ago, they are barely steady and there are certainly no children in the way.” 

“But there could be, all it take is one slip up,” Felicity’s mom interjected. 

“Oh God, mom, its not the sixties, the nuns really did a number on you in that catholic school of yours. Plus look at you, you had three children, you put dad through law school, you wrote not one, not two but 9 books and you retired as Dean of your program. That is more than what most people achieve – both men and women in their lives and you are only 63; I seriously don’t know why you go ballistic every time she gets serious about a guy.” 

Felicity mother looked remorseful. “I want her to be happy but she has always been my little girl, the quiet and shy one. I am just afraid that she will make a mistake and get her heart broken.”

Oliver who was listening to this whole exchange quietly couldn’t stop himself, “I don’t know which Felicity you are talking about, may be what you remember is a 12 or 13 year old girl who was unsure of herself. The Felicity I know is one of the bravest, smartest and kindest persons I have ever had the privilege to meet and work with. Believe me, I can be quite intimidating when I want to and at times, she is only one who stands up to me, tells me to mend my ways, and guides me to do the right thing. She is not afraid of anything – be it swinging off the buildings or bosses who refuse to listen to her. She is kind and compassionate to even those who do not deserve it. She is like a light that cannot be dimmed, how can any man – a mere mortal – extinguish that? She is strong, outspoken, intelligent, extremely witty, capable of anything that she puts her mind to, beautiful and nice and any man she chose would be good because her choice cannot be wrong, you must give her credit for making an informed intelligent decision.”  
All three women were dumbfounded at that declaration of admiration from Oliver. Laurel had some idea that he liked Felicity but that was “head over heels in love” kind of confession. She most certainly was not expecting that. 

“If you think she is the bee’s knees, why don’t you date her yourself? You do realize that you will have my blessings because I know that you know how precious she is and how I feel about men who know what it takes to be worthy of my daughters?” Esther raised her eye brows. 

“Moooom, stop interfering in her life!” Faith wailed. 

Oliver looked down at his hands, his callous hands, that have blood on them, that he sees all the time but Felicity refuses to see and insists that he is a hero. He raised his head and looked Esther in the eye and said, “I would but I respect her decision and she wants to be with Daniel, in any case, she is far too good for me.” 

“Oh Oliver, for a seemingly sharp man, you are quite dense. Like you said not a minute ago, she is smart enough to choose the right guy and if you she chooses you, then you are right guy. Your logic is flawed on another count. How can she make what you say ‘an informed decision’ if she has no idea how you feel about her? Listen to your own advice, and trust her to make the right decision and for that you need to step up and be open about your feelings for her,” Esther advised him with a smile. 

Oliver looked down at his hands again. He cannot tell them about what he does in the dark and how many demons that he is still fighting. Even though he desperately wants Felicity by his side, he is not sure if he should involve her in his life anymore – at least until he is done fighting his demons. 

He looked up at Esther again and gave her a sad smile. Laurel who was sitting right across him on the rug saw the look of utter desolation on his face. She got up and put her hand on Oliver’s shoulder. No matter how much Tommy screamed Team Oliver, deep down she suspected that Oliver may not have feelings for Felicity and just like her sister and mother, Felicity invoked some strong protective feelings in Laurel. This was the moment Laurel was convinced that Oliver really love Felicity and she could see what Tommy knew way before anyone. Her heart was filled with affection for her boyfriend who is so considerate of his friends and she truly hoped that Felicity and Oliver work out whatever their issues are because it is clearly a lot more than what meets the eye. It was at that moment, Felicity’s door opened and Tommy and Felicity came out. It was obvious that Felicity had cried and washed her face. 

Tommy looked at Laurel with a question in his eyes when he saw her crouching beside Oliver and comforting her. She smiled at him and shrugged towards the door. She nudged Oliver to stand up and bid good bye to Faith, Felicity and Esther. It was time that Felicity and her family sort things out. In any case, she cannot wait to tell Tommy what happened between Oliver and Felicity’s mom. 

The minute they were in their car, Laurel squealed, “Tommy, you missed the most dramatic confession ever.” 

Tommy did not really get it. He was in the room with Felicity for no more than 15 minutes. What could have happened in those 15 minutes? “Who confessed what?” He was still perplexed. 

“Oliver went on this long tirade about wonderful Felicity is, he practically confessed his love for Felicity and if that is not shocking enough, Felicity’s mom – her dragon of a mom – approves of Oliver, she basically told him to get his shit together and date her daughter.” 

Tommy banged his hand on the steering wheel and asked his girlfriend, “Please tell me you recorded all of it on your phone?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for reading, your reviews and feedback would mean a world to me. Please do drop a line or two.


	8. Families and their odd ways of showing affection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver wants to get to know her mom better

Felicity showed up at Verdant on Monday evening like she normally would and started running some checks on the searches she had running from the week before. Diggle and Oliver came in and with cursory greetings, they moved onto the mats to train. A couple of hours later, Oliver emerged from the training area, freshly showered and ready to embrace his club owner person. Felicity who was waiting for him to finish the training got up. 

“Can I talk to you Oliver, it won’t take more than a couple of minutes” she said very quietly. 

Oliver was in the process of donning his suit jacket, he halted and turned towards her and said, “Sure.” 

Felicity did not look him in the eye and she was rubbing her hands together, as if she is not sure what she would say to him. Oliver thought that her sister had spilled how Oliver, who is supposedly just her boss, told off their mother to go easy on her and now she wants to tell him to stay out of her family dynamics. In his mind, he too was preparing a speech when she surprised him by apologizing yet again. 

“Oliver, I am really sorry that you had to see all that shouting and drama last evening. I mean it always happens when the three of us get together; it would either be mom criticizing one of us and us retaliating or the two of them fighting their proxy war over me where mom tries to tell me that I don’t need men and Faith urges me to hook up with many men or my career or Faith’s career or her marriage or something. I mean if we don’t have dad or Ben around, us Smoak women will end up in a shouting match. It like the law or something. Honestly, I was quite drunk, I don’t even remember what triggered it off and …” Felicity rambled on in character when Oliver put his hand on her arm. 

“It’s okay Felicity, it happens with families. If anything, you are privy to much darker things about my family. Thea’s tryst with drugs, my mom and the undertaking, my dad and that notebook with the names and you know everything. All I saw last night was two women who apparently love you very much but had an odd way of showing it – nothing out of ordinary,” he smiled and titled her face so that she can see that he means it. Felicity smiled back. It’s funny that Oliver has a way of calming her with a smile when she is hyperventilating. 

“Okay. Errrm thanks, I guess. I will leave you to do your thing,” she sat down on her chair and swiveled it back to face her computers. 

Oliver started climbing the stairs that will take him up to the club level when a thought struck him and he decided to pay heed to what Felicity’s mom Esther said to him. He turned back and stood behind Felicity’s chair. 

“Pssst,” he tapped a finger on Felicity’s shoulder. 

Felicity turned around and looked at him expectantly. 

“Don’t be too hard on your mom, I actually quite liked her and don’t try to hide her from me like you did this time. If Dig and I had not run into you at Big Belly Burger, you would not even have told us that your family was visiting. Next time she comes to Starling City, let me know, I would like to get to know her better,” said Oliver and went upstairs. 

Felicity who was dumbfounded with this newly declared affection of Oliver for her mom fished out her phone from her purse and called her mom, wanting to know exactly what transpired between them for Oliver to have become so fond of her. 

Felicity’s mom just smiled at the other end thinking that may be her advice is working.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, a very short chapter but I will soon be updating the next installment ... like in a few short hours :)


	9. Tommy's annoucement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy’s ecstatic and it's contagious.

Up at the club, Tommy zeroed in on Oliver the minute he spotted him. 

“Dude, Laurel told me what happened last night. That was quite a declaration, I only wish I was there to record it so that I can play that at your wedding,” an excited Tommy slapped his arm. 

“What has she told you? Seriously, she is spending far too much time with you and has started seeing things that aren’t there – just like you. It can be a professional hazard for her considering she is a lawyer,” Oliver feigned ignorance. 

“Are we going to do that, pretending that you are not crazy into Felicity?” Tommy was incredulous. 

“For past few months, you are acting so out of character that if I had not known you better, I would have called doctors. You hover – literally hover – around Felicity. Oliver Queen never hovered around anyone – least of all a girl – before. You escort her to her car every day and linger, you make sure that no one ever sit next to her but you, you touch at any given excuse, ply her with expensive wine and make me use words like hover and linger which I am sure I have never used before. Most of all, you glower every time the name Daniel is mentioned. For all I know, you probably tail her whenever she goes out with him,” when Oliver bit his lips at that, Tommy blinked his eyes. 

“Shit! You followed a girl on her dates! Apocalypse is here and now,” Tommy could not believe that it actually happened. 

“Okay, I did check up on her, but I did not follow her on all her dates, it happened only once and I only wanted to make sure that he is an okay guy.” Oliver decided to come clean. 

“He admits to following her which is a roundabout way of actually admitting to have feelings for a girl; this day will continue to amaze me,” Tommy was unstoppable. 

“I am not admitting anything Tommy,” Oliver was adamant. 

“Yeah, because becoming a stalker of blonde women was something you always wanted to be. You even wrote that in your high school year book, right? I swear Oliver, you have got to be the stupidest man on the planet. Just tell her how you feel, all that leather you wear has hindered oxygen supply to your brain. That woman has been helping your very illegal operation since god knows when, has committed many cyber crimes to help you in your crusade, has wiped blood off your body and stitched you up many times – yes she told me about all that, we talk like normal people – what else do you want her to do to let you know that she is into you? Stab herself with one of your arrows?” Tommy was really pissed. 

“She is with Daniel,” Oliver said quietly. 

“And whose fault is that? If you had asked her out like any sane person, this would not have happened and the way you have been behaving of late, like a petulant child, I am glad that she is with someone who acts like a grown up, that way she will not forget how adult men behave,” Tommy decided to give it to him. 

When Oliver made a face that said that he does not really appreciate being compared to Daniel, Tommy stopped. 

“You lose this one Oliver, now you have three ways you take this on. One, you sit back, reflect, learn and do not make the same mistake with another woman. Two, you sit back and do not learn from this mistake and repeat this same pattern with other women and end up miserable and lonely – which you kind of are right now. Three, you take the bull by the horns and tell that Felicity how you feel about her, make a gesture so grand that she forgets about that other man she is dating and you two walk into the sunset or some other such shit. There comes a time when you need to man up, like I did, with Laurel because living without her was harder than anything for me. You need to figure out if it is the same for you,” with that Tommy went out on the floor making sure things were running smoothly at the club. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oliver wanted to man up and speak with Felicity after that lecture but they never got the time. The days at office were filled with meetings and there was a lot to do. They spent the next three days working to find dirt on the property tycoon who was trying to sell the leveled parts of the glades to the developers and wanted to gentrify the area and drive the real residents out. They finally managed to hand him over to the police. He had every intention of actually talking to Felicity before they break for the weekend and on Friday he created an opportunity. 

Even though he managed to get rid of Diggle and prepared a speech in his head, he could not talk to her that day. As soon as Felicity came down the lair and sat on her chair, a beaming Tommy followed her with the hugest smile on his face and an announcement. “Guys, I have got news for you!” 

For about five seconds both Felicity and Oliver just looked at him and then at each other before Felicity launched herself at Tommy, hugging him and asking, “Did she say yes? Are you guys getting married? Will it be a proper wedding or will the two of you just elope like Laurel suggested the other time?” 

Oliver felt odd. His best friend and Laurel were planning a wedding and no one bothered to tell him? And Felicity knew! 

“Nah, this is bigger than that,” Tommy now has his arm around Felicity’s shoulder and he was smiling at her. It was like he was unable to control his facial expressions and a broad smile is now part of his facial features. 

It suddenly dawned on her and Felicity gasped, “Oh no Tommy Merlyn, you did that and survived to tell the tale? Where is Laurel and why is Detective Lance not after you with a gun?” With that she launched herself at Tommy again and hugged him again. 

Tommy waved at Oliver and included him in the group hug. Once they are done with all the hugging, Oliver asked, “What is she talking about? What have you done now to invoke the wrath of the police?”

“I most definitely did not indulge in any illegal activity; those days are over, forever. Laurel and I just found out that we are pregnant,” Tommy smiled some more. 

“Gawd Tommy, you are going to make the coolest dad ever!” Felicity literally jumped with joy and Oliver laughed at that. He hugged Tommy, patted his back and congratulated him. It was obvious that the guy was over the moon. 

“Imagine a baby with my good looks and Laurel’s brain? Now that’s what you call a genetic lottery for a kid,” Tommy laughed with his friends. 

“Come on, don’t you dare put yourself down Tommy, even if the baby is like 99% you, he or she would be great. You are amazing and so is Laurel and I am so happy for you guys I just don’t know what to do,” she flailed her arms and hugged Tommy tightly, Tommy just had that goofy smile on his face which said that he is happier than he ever thought he could be. 

Oliver looked at her, giddy with pleasure over Tommy’s good news and out of nowhere a thought came to his mind. How would Felicity react if she is the one pregnant? If she is this happy for Laurel and Tommy, how would she react if she is in the same situation? And with that reflection, he thought that for all intent and purposes, she could very well be pregnant right now, with Daniel’s baby. He couldn’t just stand there near them after that so he moved away from the duo and he started scowling unknowingly. 

Tommy’s phone beeped, he read the text and started moving away from them. “Guys, Laurel is here. Come upstairs and act as if you don’t know anything. She specifically told me to not say a word but I couldn’t stop myself. And Felicity, you have to make all the right noises about the ring. According to you, it is perfect in every way, right?”

“What? You sly dog, you got engaged as well? What are you doing to me Tommy? Killing me with feelings and happy news?” Felicity had tears in her eyes and she embraced him for the fourth time in as many minutes. 

“Duh! It’s a given that we will get married as soon as we can. At least before she start showing, her father will torture me in ways not known to mankind if I am not married to her by then, and this pretty face would not do well with suffering of any kind, so yeah, we are engaged, have been engaged for last 3 hours,” Tommy wiped her teary eyes and kissed her on the forehead. 

“You two, make an appearance in exactly two minutes and wash your face before you come, Laurel will kill me if she figures out that I told you guys before she got here,” with that he went up stairs. 

Felicity went to the washroom and came out precisely in a minute and half, with a face scrubbed clean and a fresh coat of her bright lipstick. Oliver was rooted to the same spot thinking of ways to torture Daniel if Felicity ever got pregnant when she touched his arm and tilted her head towards the stairs leading him to the main floor. 

Oliver and Felicity made their way to Tommy’s office. Laurel was standing in front of his desk in a peacock blue dress looking beautiful and radiant. The minute she saw Felicity, she beamed, held out her left hand and showed her the ring. Felicity squealed and rushed to hug her friend. Oliver followed her and hugged Laurel as well. “Welcome to the fold Laurel, now that you are not just his girl friend, I won’t have to hide his dirty secrets.” Oliver smiled at both of his friends. 

“Err in case you forgot, I am already privy to all the dirty secrets you two have. I have known both of you since high school, in fact, I know more than any girlfriend should know about her boyfriend’s past transgressions,” Laurel laughed. 

“No one is going to talk about past transgressions today, it’s a happy day” Felicity said that with fierceness. She almost knocked Oliver out of the way and hugged Laurel once more. 

“You know, don’t you?” Laurel looked at over emotional teary eyed Felicity and guessed. “Tommy, you have told her, have you not? I asked you to keep quiet for just a couple of hours and you cannot even do that? How are we going to keep it hushed up for next three weeks or do you really want Dad to find out before the wedding?” 

“Hey, I told her that I had news and then she correctly guessed that we got engaged. I had to go bigger and the only thing bigger than our engagement is our baby, so yes I did let her on. In any case, it’s just Felicity, she won’t go and babble to your dad that he is going to be a grand dad any time soon,” Tommy said confidently, “would you Lis?”

“Of course not Tommy, it’s not like we hang out for drinks and swap life stories with each other,” Felicity laughed. 

“Oh you will spill the beans on anyone who cares to listen to you for two minutes. Have you looked at yourself, you are ecstatic. You are hugging everyone, laughing and crying at the same time. I should be the one who is doing all that; I even have the perfect excuse of haywire hormones. Honestly, you are acting more pregnant than I do. You aren’t? Are you?” all of a sudden, Laurel started looking at her suspiciously. 

“Am I what?” Felicity did not understand what she was asking. 

“Pregnant?” Laurel was persistent. 

Of course not? Where did it come from?” Felicity was horrified at that speculation. She was so taken aback that she did not notice Oliver’s reaction where he tensed up his body and started clenching and unclenching his hands. 

Laurel just raised her eye brows and pointed towards her tears. 

“I am just happy for you guys, I mean its Tommy … and you. You are the closest thing I have to a best friend and Tommy is practically my brother. I mean I see more of him in a week than I see of Ben – my real brother – in a year and he is always there for me – rock solid. And you two are the nicest, kindest, most fun people I know and I always thought that happy endings only happen in romantic comedies but your lives are like romantic comedies where you bickered and bantered for a decade and then fell in love and are now getting married and making beautiful babies. Oh my God, your baby would be so beautiful, I mean have you guys even looked at yourelves? You, gorgeous Laurel and Tommy Merlyn who can kill ladies with just a smile. You may be called Tommy and Laurel but you guys are like real life Harry and Sally who have always been in love with each other – minus an orgasm in the restaurant of course.”

With that, she jumped at both of them and hugged them for the umpteenth time. Her emotional state was contagious and she made both Tommy and Laurel cry. Felicity was quite happy at achieving this feat. Tommy was a softie so him tearing up a bit was par for the course. Felicity was particularly happy that she made tough as nails Laurel cry.  
Oliver looked at three of them from a distance in a state of wonder. He was marveling at Felicity’s capacity to love others. There is no denying that he was happy for his friend and his future family but the way Felicity celebrated Laurel and Tommy’s good news, he has never seen anyone else be this happy for other people. He only wondered if she would ever be this happy for herself and if he could be part of that happiness with her. 

“Okay, it is official. Felicity is actually happier than I am that Laurel has agreed to be my wife.” Tommy tried to lighten the mood but he too was affected by Felicity’s emotional outburst.

Laurel grabbed Felicity’s hand with her left hand and held Tommy’s arm with her right, “Not that I need to say anything but things will not change now that we are “officially together.” You will always be very very important to us (Laurel raised her eye brow at Oliver as if trying to convey to her that if it ever came to choosing between Oliver and Felicity, they will choose Felicity) and you will be part of our family and will have a home with us, always.”

At that moment, Oliver realized that he too wanted everything that Tommy had in that moment – a woman who loves him unconditionally, a family of his own and the generosity to invite others to be part of that family. The only problem was that he could not imagine that life without Felicity in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... what do you guys think?  
> Some of you may think Felicity is a little OOC, but hey, it is AU. And in my head, she would behave exactly this way if she is with loved ones and she is happy.


	10. My best friend's wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was Oliver too late?

Tommy and Laurel had a very short engagement. Laurel refused to be the bride sporting a baby bump – she was very clear when she accepted Tommy’s proposal, it was either now or a year after – Tommy did not want to wait for a year so he pushed for one the shortest engagements and the wedding was set for three weeks after the initial announcement. 

Oliver offered his mansion for the wedding and Tommy and Laurel graciously accepted. What no one expected was how that venue would turn Thea into a tyrant of a wedding planner. She was constantly glued to her tablet or was found barking orders to some poor unsuspecting soul on her phone for the next three weeks. Moira also decided to chip in and Felicity too was black mailed by Thea to help. In fact she even designed a program for Thea to manage all her wedding related tasks and timelines. In addition, Felicity refused to work at the Lair unless it was absolutely necessary. According to her, unless someone is dying, Green Arrow will not actively look for criminals for next three weeks. If Felicity had her way, which she did to some extent, life as a vigilante was on partial hold till Tommy and Laurel left Starling City for their honeymoon. 

Despite trying a few times, Oliver couldn’t get hold of Felicity. She would barely come to the lair, and she would be very busy in the office. If she was not working, she would be on phone with either Thea or Laurel planning something or going for fittings or some such equally frivolous thing which was beyond Oliver’s comprehension. I mean who cares what kind of flowers are there on the tables, right? When he saw Moira, Thea, Laurel and Felicity one evening poring over some flower photos and voiced this opinion, all four heads turned towards him with admonishing eyes. Thea suggested that Oliver might want to get hitched like a caveman if he could ever convince a woman to marry him by hoisting her on his shoulders and taking her to his cave but most civilized women prefer worrying over things like perfect flowers and dresses and food and flower girls.   
One day, Oliver tried camping in Felicity’s balcony but that was the day she decided to spend the night at Laurel’s. He later found out that not only did she spend quite a few nights at Laurel’s, she once stayed at the Queen mansion, helping Thea design the flower arrangement for the gazebo where actual wedding ceremony was supposed to take place. 

He was quite taken aback when he saw her in his kitchen looking for coffee one Saturday morning. It invoked images in his head that he was really not ready to deal with, Felicity in his kitchen, every morning, drinking coffee, having breakfast, but before he could actually exchange more than two sentences, Thea swooped in and rushed Felicity out, promising her excellent coffee on the way to the caterers. 

They all did meet a few times for drinks and dinner but she would bring Daniel along which always dampened his mood. What irritated him even more was Tommy’s obvious affability with Daniel. It was like he had already accepted him as Felicity’s other half which irked Oliver to no end. 

Oliver couldn’t wait for this madness of a wedding to be over so that he could talk to Felicity. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Felicity arranged the bachelorette party for Laurel, the idea was that everyone would gather at her apartment, have a couple of drinks and then head out for a girls’ night out, with drinks and dancing and men – well male dancers to be precise. 

Felicity was flitting between her living room and kitchen pouring drinks, handing out snacks and generally chatting with all the girls assembled. Thea was watching Felicity in her house, happy and full of laughter. Laurel slipped down next to her and said, “Earth to Thea, what happened, tired with all the wedding planning?

“Not really. I was just thinking about Felicity,” Thea was still looking at Felicity, deep in thought. 

“What about her?” she asked cautiously. 

“Just that she is amazing. Very smart but does not take herself too seriously and can be a total goof when the occasion calls for it. Very pretty but not obsessed with her looks. Very kind but would not hang her act of kindness over your head and best of all, she gives into anything I ask – all I have to do is make bambi eyes and she is a putty in my hands.” Thea had a smile on her face when she talked about Felicity.

“I like her, mom likes her a lot. She works so closely with Ollie and I was wondering why Ollie had never dated her or at least someone like her. I mean you guys are getting married; Felicity is with Daniel and they look serious for all intent and purposes, what is left for Ollie, some random gold digging skanks? At times I worry about him, he dates but does not really date anyone, you know what I am saying right?” Thea seemed worried. 

Laurel quietly looked at Thea wondering if she knew anything about Felicity and Oliver. “How come we drifted to Oliver’s love life from discussing Felicity?” She asked with laughter. 

“Ever since I met with Felicity, I wanted her to be the woman Oliver would end up with; I only thought it would be a matter of time before he realizes that she is the woman for him, I mean he is with her all the time, he must have noticed her as a woman. You have no idea how disappointed was I when she introduced me to Daniel – who by the way is perfect. I mean had she been with anyone less worthy, I would have totally tried to break them apart but Daniel is so nice and I don’t want to hurt nice people because I fear that it will bring bad karma to me,” Thea declared. 

“Did Oliver say something to you?” Laurel had to ask. Why else would Thea pair Oliver and Felicity together, and dream of a happy ending if he had not talked to her about it, unless they make so much sense together that everyone – including Oliver’s family – think they belong with each other. Felicity’s mother is already on board with the idea and Tommy is their biggest champion.

“What about?” She asked. 

Laurel nodded towards Felicity who was serving wine to their guests and asked,”Do you know their history?”

“Is there a history that I needed to know about? OMG! The signs are all there. Ollie is not the most gracious person but he is extra rude to Daniel, especially when Felicity is not around and he keeps looking at her when she is around. I thought he is irritated because I have pretty much monopolized Felicity’s time for wedding arrangements these past weeks but now that you have mentioned, it is more than that.” Thea was too excited and was literally jumping on Felicity’s couch. 

Laurel’s voice grew quieter, “From what Tommy told me, your brother sought Felicity out at QC for a lot of tech help initially. When he took over the firm, he asked her to work closely with him because he trusted her. They worked crazy hours and spent a lot of time in each other’s company. Apparently she liked your brother but he refused to acknowledge the fact that he too is crazy about her. I mean why else would he throws dirty looks at any man who would even look at Felicity, right?”

“Tommy asked me to match her up with some eligible guy. He thought that if a nice guy would date Felicity, Oliver would realize that she would not always be around and he would step up and admit his feelings. I set her up with Daniel but nothing happened. He didn’t step up. Now Daniel and Felicity are a thing and Oliver is surlier than usual.”

“Arghhh! Trust Ollie to screw up something nice, sometimes I think he has abnormal self destructive tendencies,” Thea sighed.

“Can I let you in on a secret?” Laurel asked. At Thea’s vigorous nodding, she continued. 

“I think Oliver loves her, I have heard him singing her praises to her mother when she last visited and it was very romantic. I mean considering his reputation, I never thought he would feel that way about a woman. I think he is just afraid that she may not want him back, and has never said anything and now he feels more pressured because let’s just admit it. Daniel is pretty amazing.” Laurel said. 

“But why would she not want him? My brother is pretty amazing too. He is decent, hard working, rich and good looking. I mean he is a bit of a manwhore but nothing the love of a good woman cannot take care of and they don’t come better than Felicity! Why would he think that?” Thea was perturbed. 

She knew that once she would go home, she would talk some sense into her big brother before he loses her for good. It is about time. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Wedding Day

The day couldn’t be more perfect. The skies were blue, the air was crisp and everyone seemed happy that morning. Felicity woke up happy for her friends, Tommy and Laurel were happy because they were starting their lives together, Thea was happy that because it was the first wedding she was pulling off and that she had that talk with her brother and Oliver was happy with the anticipation that Felicity would agree to be with him. Thea assured him that Felicity feels the same way about him. 

The ceremony was lovely. Laurel looked beautiful in a wedding dress with hand painted blue motifs on the body of her wedding dress before it flared out in silken waves. Tommy looked handsome in his morning suit and bow tie in the same shade of blue but Oliver had eyes only for Felicity. She wore a sky blue floor length dress with lace and silver embellishment on the bodice. The dress was full sleeved and boat necked, very modest but it was her hair that made her stand out. She braided her hair to the side with white flowers threaded into her hair, like Rapunzal. She looked ethereal and Oliver couldn’t take his eyes off her during the ceremony as she stood behind Laurel as her maid of honor. 

Once the ceremony was over, the wedding party moved to the other side for food, dancing and photos. Tommy was at his flamboyant best and was acting like he was on a GQ shoot. The often surly faced Detective Lance was beaming and sporting an ear to ear grin as he posed for photos next to his daughter and new son in law. Thea requested a special photo where Felicity and Thea were kissing Tommy on both his cheeks as a reminder that today would be the last day when he would have two women on his arms. Oliver though hated posing for photographs, relented and became part of it all. If he was honest with himself, he quite enjoyed getting his pictures taken with the beautiful maid of honor. 

Oliver danced only twice during the party, once with the bride and once with his mother, the rest of the time, he was just following Felicity with his eyes, who apparently was having the time of her life laughing and dancing with everyone, from Diggle to Tommy to Roy to Daniel to Detective Lance to Laurel’s numerous cousins. Heck, she even danced with Thea when they both ditched their partners in the middle of a song and started twisting. 

When she sat down next to Daniel and took a sip from her champagne glass, the music changed and turned into a slow number from the sixties. Oliver walked up to them and asked Felicity to dance. She looked at Daniel as if seeking his permission but at the same time, Thea appeared out of nowhere and whisked Daniel to the dance floor saying that she must dance with all the handsome men on Tommy’s wedding and Daniel followed her on the dance floor with a laugh. 

Oliver too led felicity to the dance floor and they started dancing. 

“You look beautiful today,” Oliver started the conversation. 

“Thanks, mom sent me the dress. I would not have spent this kind of money on something I would wear just once, but yeah, it was nice of her and I like it.” her eyes were firmly placed on his collar. 

“Felicity,” Oliver commandeered her to look at him. 

“Hmmm,” she is now looking at his ear. 

“You have barely spoken three sentences to me since you got here, and we have not really talked for about a month now. What happened? You are not your usual self.” He asked softly. 

“No, I have just been busy. Running here and there and making sure everything is fine,” her eyes are now focused on his tie. 

Oliver drew her closer and moved his hand from her waist to her back and said, “Come inside, I need to talk to you.”

“errrm I cannot really, Tommy and Laurel would be leaving soon and I have to make sure that the photographer …” Oliver cut her off in the middle of sentence, moved his other hand from her hand to her arm and drew her away from the dance floor towards the mansion. 

“Oliver, they would look for me, I have things to do,” she wailed. 

“It will just take ten minutes, and then you can go back to the wedding.” Oliver was determined to talk to her today. 

Once inside the mansion, he opened the door of the library and gestured to her to go in there. She stepped in and bent down to take her sandals off before she moved any further. She lost a good 4 inches of height and suddenly looked smaller. She turned around and waited for Oliver to say something but he was just looking at her intensely, as if he was trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle. 

“Oliver, I have to get back, I am the maid of honor, and I have got to be there for the bridal send off.” Felicity said when saw him not moving, just standing there next to the closed door of the library, looking at her. 

“You look beautiful,” he said it again, totally taken in with her. 

“Well, the amount of time I spent in getting my hair done, I should look better than I normally do but I wouldn’t call myself beautiful, that would be stretching it a …” she abruptly stopped when Oliver shushed her by putting his finger on her lips. 

“You really need to learn how to respond when a man compliments you,” Oliver was a little too close for Felicity’s comfort. 

She removed his finger from her lips and shifted a little to the side. 

“I do know how to respond when a man compliments me but you are not a man, you are Oliver, and you are my boss and we work together, not at one job but two jobs so I don’t really know and you are really tall and you are standing really close to me and I think I should go ….”

This time Oliver shushed her with his lips. 

Felicity tried to rationalize what was happening and tried to keep her eyes open but when Oliver put one hand on her back and massaged her neck with the other, she too gave in and closed her eyes and responded to that kiss. The instant Oliver realized that she was kissing him back; he pulled her even closer and sighed into her mouth. 

Felicity had her eyes closed and somewhere during that kiss, she dropped her sandals and her hands crept up to his chest. They broke apart only to breathe and Felicity, though responded to Oliver’s kiss with fervor was shy all of a sudden. Oliver tipped her face up and smiled at her. 

“Felicity, look at me.” He asked. 

Felicity looked up at his face to see a smiling Oliver. 

“Kiss me,” he commanded her. 

Felicity was in a state of trance and did what she was told to. She raised herself on the tip of her toes to reach Oliver’s face and kissed him, lightly at first and then with more passion. 

They had no idea for how long they were there kissing each other – was it 30 seconds or 15 minutes , they did not know and only broke apart when they heard Thea calling out   
Felicity’s name. 

“Oh shit, no. What have I done?” Felicity’s face paled all of a sudden. 

“We kissed each other Felicity, rather passionately I might add.” Oliver said with a smile. 

Felicity looked horror stricken and her eyes were misty. She started rushing out of the library muttering that she has to go. Oliver went after and called her name but she was too quick and almost ran out of the foyer. 

She had her hand on the door handle when she turned back, looked at him with tear filled eyes and said, “I am not that woman Oliver and I will not be that woman for anyone, not even for you.” 

She opened the door and fled out bare feet to the garden holding the party and Oliver saw Thea in the middle of the foyer witnessing this strange scene. 

She looked at Felicity’s retreating back and Oliver’s stricken expression and followed him into the library. 

“What happened Ollie? Was Felicity crying? What did you do? Did you say something?” She was all questions but Oliver had no answers. 

He just looked at Thea and said, “I swear I don’t know.” 

Oliver looked lost and Thea took pity on him. She came closer, held his face in her hands and said, “Ollie, hold yourself together, take a couple of minutes and then come out. I am sure whatever it was, you and Felicity can talk it out after the guests leave. I am going back out now, you come when you feel better, okay?” 

Oliver looked at her as she left and bent to pick up Felicity’s discarded sandals. He wondered about what happened between then and what was it that made Felicity flee like a hunted animal. He wanted to get to the bottom of it and he wanted to do it now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was following the story, apologies for posting an update almost after a month. There was no reason apart from extreme laziness on my part. There are two more chapters after this and I will try to be more prompt in posting the next two updates.   
> Feel free to leave comments, good, bad, nasty or whatever you feel like.


	11. Confession Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a revelation about Felicity's past that will shock Oliver

If someone were to ask Oliver later what he remembered about Tommy’s wedding, he would say it was Felicity’s teary eyes when she was running away from him or her small bare feet when she was saying goodbye to Laurel and Tommy and hanging on to Daniel’s arm. 

She didn’t stay after Laurel and Tommy left. She bid adieu to Moira and left soon after, without ever taking her sandals back. Oliver went back to the library, picked up her sandals and took them upstairs in his room and stared at them. She left her silver strappy sandals behind, like Cinderella’s glass slippers. Unlike the prince, Oliver knows where his Cinderella is but it appears that Oliver is not her prince. 

She sent a text to Diggle the next day that she will be taking the weekend off (the wedding took place on a Friday) and then came to lair Monday evening like everything was fine. She worked on her computers while Diggle and Oliver sparred and she left with a terse good bye at 9.00. The same pattern continued for another couple of days, though she left much earlier than before. Team Arrow had an operation the fourth day so she stayed late and was on the comms while Diggle and Oliver were out on the field.   
She waited for them to change out of their gear after they came back and Oliver saw her standing by her work station looking at him. He approached her with a little hesitation and asked if everything was okay. 

“I need to talk to you,” she gripped the back of her chair tightly, as if seeking strength from a solid surface. 

Oliver nodded and gestured for her to sit down and pulled a chair next to hers but she did not sit. She paced a bit more and when Dig appeared, she asked if she and Oliver can have a bit if privacy. Digg looked at both of them, nodded and left immediately. As soon as he left, she stood behind the chair facing Oliver and turned his way. Oliver was waiting patiently for her to continue. 

“I want to explain why I ran away the other day – you know on Tommy and Laurel’s wedding day,” she said while looking at her hands. 

“You don’t have to Felicity, I gathered why you did run away. You are with Daniel and I get that, you are not that kind of girl. I apologize if I have caused any inconvenience to you or Daniel, it was … errr …. not very thoughtful of me,” it was Oliver’s turn to look away. 

“It’s not just that Oliver. It was not a moment of weakness on my part, it runs deeper than that. Everyone says that I was a shy teenager who would be quiet and keep to herself, but that’s not true. I mean I was shy and quiet but I was not like that initially, I was about as outgoing as the next girl my age” Felicity had this distant look on her face.   
When Oliver did not say anything, she continued. 

“I had always been closer to my dad when I was a kid. Mom was a tenured professor and was always very busy. She would always be teaching, writing papers and attending conferences all over the world. Dad too was busy – he is a lawyer – but he would never bring work home and would always spend evenings with us. I was closest to him probably because by the time I was 7, both Faith and Ben became teenagers and had their own lives. To cut a long story short, I was a total daddy’s girl and loved him to bits.

“My idyllic life shattered one day when I was 14. I was supposed to be away for gymnastic practice but got home earlier and overheard my mother talking to her best friend about me. Among other things, I found out that my mother apparently had a brief affair and she was never sure if I was daddy’s biological daughter and how she never had the courage to get a DNA test done because it would have killed both my dad and I if we ever found out about it. I went from being a sunny kid who was not only excellent at academics but also the star of track and gymnastic teams turned into a hermit. Initially I fell ill and missed two weeks of school. I recovered but was never the same girl after that. I lost all my confidence and I would feel guilty when daddy would be affectionate with me and buy me things. It was a bad time, every moment that daddy would spend with me, I would feel that I am stealing this love that only belonged to Faith and Ben because he was their dad and not mine. I felt I had no right on his time and affection and money. Daddy was so worried, he even took me to a therapist but I never opened up, everyone just thought I had gotten weird – teenage hormones or something but it was not that, it was the crisis of confidence. I was floundering to figure out who I was. You know, I started dying my hair soon after I found out about mom’s indiscretion. Dad, Faith and Ben all have light hair and I wanted to be like them – part of their family – I did not want to look like some guy who perhaps did not even know I existed,” Felicity had tears running down her cheeks.   
Oliver wanted to comfort her but she looked dazed – as if she is back in her parent’s home reliving her teenage years – so he refrained. 

“When I was 18, my roommate was dating a TA who was working on his masters in genetics and as a favour to his girl friend; he ran a DNA test for me for free after I stole my dad’s hair brush during that Thanksgiving weekend. Turned out, I was feeling guilty for no good reason, daddy is my biological father. I am a true blue Smoak kid. I stopped feeling guilty but I never went back to being how I was, at least not with mom. Don’t get me wrong Oliver, I love her, I know she was human and she made a mistake – we all have made mistakes – but I always felt the burden of it on my shoulders, ” she laughed a hollow laughter. 

“I never confronted my mother after I found out but somehow, I lost whatever closeness I had with her. Deep down, I always judged her – for cheating on daddy, for cheating on me by not telling me who my real father was and when I found out that daddy is my real father then I judged her for putting me through that misery. Imagine my horror when I kissed you. It was like every fear I had of ever turning out like my mother come true, I heard people saying that the apple usually does not fall from the tree and I was that apple. I became the daughter of an adulteress who was cheating on her boyfriend when he was barely 200 feet away,” Felicity was hysterical.

“Felicity, look at me. I was the one who kissed you when I knew you were with someone else, if anyone is at fault here, it’s me,” Oliver was shocked at Felicity’s revelation but he cannot let her stew. 

“Thank you for saying that but you and I both know that you are a free agent and you can kiss whomever you want, I was the one dating a man exclusively and I kissed you back and then kissed you some more. You are not responsible for my actions, in fact I was less horrified at my transgression and more horrified over the fact that despite judging my mother for what she did, I turned into her and I also wondered if I inherited her cheating gene.” 

“Felicity, you are one of the most honest people I have ever met. Don’t beat yourself over that. It was nothing,” Oliver cannot bear to see her in so much pain. 

“Thanks Oliver, I know you tend to take responsibility for everything that goes wrong around you but this one is on me. You are absolved and I apologize once again if I have given you the impression that you are to be blamed. You are not to be blamed. If anyone was dishonest that day about anything, it was me, and I am really sorry for that. I hope you can forgive me,” she said. 

Forgive you for what Felicity, it was just a kiss,” Oliver stood up wanting to shake her out of her guilt. 

“For kissing you when I was with someone else, for running away and making you somehow feel that it was your fault, for not being truly honest I guess,” she lightly touched his shoulder and picked up her bag and tablet to leave. 

“You know Oliver, now you too have something on me,” she smiled. 

“What!” Oliver had no idea what she was talking about. 

“I keep your secret and now you have one of mine, you are the only person besides me who knows about my not so intriguing parental intrigue,” she said and left. 

Oliver stayed in that chair long after she was gone and wondered if he has lost Felicity for good. 

\---- 

Strange as it may seem, they survived that and fell back into their old working relationship. Felicity was a bit quieter and less prone to ramblings, Diggle even mentioned that he missed her off tangent long arguments but she just laughed it off. When Tommy and Laurel came back from their honey moon a month later, everyone got together for dinner at their house and they all saw Oliver being genuinely nice and cordial to Daniel for the first time and both Thea and Laurel noticed that. 

Laurel took Thea aside and asked her about this change. 

"I don't know what happened, Felicity and Oliver went inside the house on your wedding and something happened, when I went in looking for her, I saw coming out with tears in her eyes and Oliver with standing in the middle of our library with a stricken expression, I couldn't talk to him then and he just shut down after that. He is just very civil and polite with Daniel after that. It's like he has decided that he is not gonna fight for her and has graciously admitted defeat," Thea was sad for her brother. 

"That is so not like Oliver," Laurel said, "Perhaps I should get Tommy to talk to him, not about Felicity but you know, a general man to man talk about life, may be he will open up to him." 

Tommy never got the chance to have that heart to heart with Oliver - that same weekend Oliver had an accident when slipped off his bike on a icy road on his way back from Verdant late one night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like always, no excuse for late updates. Please leave a comment even if it is to tell me to get my act together and start posting new chapters more regularly.


	12. Suspended life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone - and that is everyone in Arrow verse - now knows how crazy Felicity is about our masked vigilante.

She left her car in the middle of parking lot with the driver’s seat door open and her car keys still in ignition and she ran inside the hospital. Once inside, Felicity had no idea which way to go. She was going towards the reception area when Laurel and Tommy spotted her looking bewildered. 

“Felicity, this way,” Tommy waved at her. 

Felicity ran towards them and asked, “How is he, I drove as fast as I could,” she was breathing hard. 

Tommy put his hands on her shoulder and tried to calm her down, “Breathe Felicity, Breathe, he is okay. Let’s go see him okay.” 

While they were heading towards the elevators, an orderly came and asked Felicity to park her car in the parking area instead of leaving it in the middle of patient drop off lane. 

“What, where did I leave my car?” Felicity was still out of sorts. 

Tommy realized that Felicity was not in the best of mental state so he took over. 

“Laurel, why don’t you take her to Oliver’s room and I will sort out her car and parking issues,” he patted her back and motioned her to go with Laurel and went with the orderly to park her car in the designated area. When he came out and saw how she left her car, he realized how bad she must have been feeling throughout the three hour long drive from her parent’s home. The car was parked diagonally as if she was trying to drive inside the hospital with her keys left in the ignition, her purse on the passenger seat and her phone and tablet were on the floor – which Tommy suspected must have fallen off the passenger seat when she put on abrupt breaks – perhaps multiple times. Her half zipped weekend case was lying on the back seat with her grey peacoat on top of it. Tommy thanked the orderly, parked her car and picked up her coat, her bag and her phone before he headed inside.

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

While Laurel and Felicity were waiting for the elevator, she turned to her and asked again, “what happened?” 

“He was coming back from his club late one night, his bike slipped on the ice and he hit the pavement. He is through with the surgery and is now recuperating,” 

Laurel filled her in during the short elevator ride. The minute she stepped out of the elevator and saw Diggle in the hospital corridor outside Oliver’s room, she ran towards him. 

“What exactly happened Digg, did you guys go without me on the comms? Did it happen because I was away this weekend?” She was hanging on to his arms with tears running down her eyes. 

“Nothing like that Felicity, it was just a road accident, his tyre hit an icy patch and the bike skidded, throwing him off. He’s through the surgery and is in his room. If you want to see him, I can take you in there, okay?” Diggle patted her shoulder. 

Felicity wiped her tears and nodded her assent. The two of them entered the VIP room in the hospital. 

The minute Felicity entered the room, everything else faded. All she could see was Oliver lying on the bed on his side, his face away from the door. A tiny patch of his head near his neck was shaved and there was a tube coming out of that part of his skull. She walked towards the bed like she was in a trance – ignoring everyone else around her. She reached the foot of the bed, hesitated for a while and then walked around the bed to see his face. She wanted to see his eyes - his beautiful eyes - to reassure herself that he was alive but they were close. There were tubes coming out of his mouth and nose and his face was pale. 

She stood beside the bed, a little bent to see his face at a better angle. “Digg, why are there so many tubes going in and out of his body, you said he only skidded off his bike,” she asked. 

Thea, who was sitting on the couch in that massive private room walked up to Oliver’s bed on the other side and said, “Well, he might just have skidded but his head got pretty banged up. Thank God he was wearing a helmet. He had internal bleeding and the doctors had to operate – the tube is there to release any excess fluid.”

“He was operated? Brain surgery? When was that?” she asked. 

“Last night, immediately after he was brought in,” Thea responded again. 

“So it has been how many hours since then? And why he has not woken up as yet?” Felicity was full of questions. 

Moira, who was silently watching this exchange walked up to her and put her hand on her arm, “They are keeping him sedated till they are sure that there is nothing else going on in his brain. Once they remove the tube, they will take him off the meds and he will wake up. The doctors believe everything will be okay.”

Felicity felt her legs giving away at that and she grabbed the railing of Oliver’s bed for support. Roy brought her a chair and Moira helped her sit down. All she could see was Oliver’s face – pale and vulnerable – with tubes going in and out, but he looked strangely relaxed, as if he is sleeping a deep sleep after exhaustion. She pulled her chair closer to his bed and tentatively traced his jaw line with one finger and then with two. She touched his cheek bones, his closed eye lids, his forehead, the bridge of his nose, his chin. She touched every part of his face and taken liberties with them that she never could when he was awake. She did not even realize what she was doing but perhaps she was trying to reassure herself that Oliver was there – with her – alive and breathing. 

Tommy entered the room and saw Felicity mesmerized with Oliver’s face, looking at it, touching it. Felicity is open in her affections to everyone but Oliver. To see her oblivious to everyone else – especially Oliver’s mother and sister – revealed how shook up she was with Oliver’s accident. He raised his brow and beckoned Diggle to follow him outside. Laurel too followed them to the corridor. 

“Who called her and told her about Oliver’s accident?” Tommy asked. 

“I don’t know, she just called me a couple of hours ago asking me about updates, I offered to go and pick her up from her mom’s but she was already on her way, what happened?” Diggle looked concerned. 

“She is in a very bad condition Diggle, she left her car in the drop lane half inside the reception area – her door was left hanging open and her keys were in the ignition. Her Tablet and phone were on the car floor – and this is Felicity we are talking about who loves her gadgets as much as people love their children – I am surprised that she survived the long drive from her parent’s home and got here in one piece,” Tommy was worried. 

“I called her Tommy, I thought she would like to know,” Thea said from the doorway. 

“I mean shouldn’t she know about Oliver, we all know these two are close and the way she is behaving right now, I guess it is a lot more than that,” Thea was a little defensive when she saw Tommy’s set jaw and worried face. 

“Yes, you were right Thea, no one is blaming you,” Laurel was quick to assure the younger girl that she is not at fault. 

“It’s just that with these two, one never really knows how to tread. They have been dancing around each other for so long, there is this pull and push so one does not know if they are as close to each other as we all think or as distant as they would like us to think. Tommy would have preferred if someone had gone to collect her instead of just calling her. Apparently she left her car running downstairs and she was crying while driving which was kind of unsafe, hence Tommy’s concern,” Laurel tried to explain it to Thea. 

She turned to Tommy who was holding Felicity’s purse and phone and took them from his hands, “I am gonna go and talk to her and you take that frown off your face. Everyone is alive and breathing and it will all be okay,” she kissed his cheek and went in the room. 

Tommy looked at Thea and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay Speedy, he is gonna wake up soon and will mock us all for our concern. He is a cheeky bastard like that, I mean look at him, he conned us into believing that he was dead for 5 years and he came back, more muscular than ever before, and became a CEO among other things, this is just a minor injury, if anyone can beat it, it is him right?” Tommy pulled back and looked at Thea. 

Tommy who wanted to comfort Thea ended up seeking her assurance that Oliver will recover. They stood in that corridor for quite some time – seeking strength in each other’s embrace – that her brother and his best friend will be fine. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

Three hours later, Laurel was shocked when she tried to get Felicity to go home with her. The generally gentle Felicity refused to move from his bedside. 

“I am not going anywhere until he wakes up,” Felicity was adamant to not leave his side. “He may not say it but I know that he hates it when I go away, he relies on me. What if he needed something and I am not here? I am not going anywhere.” 

Laurel wanted to tell her that Oliver is in a drug induced coma, he most probably would not require her to do anything but she did not say anything and looked helplessly at Tommy. Tommy looked at Diggle and then Diggle stepped next to Felicity. 

“It’s okay Laurel, you guys go home. I will be here with them, if anything comes up, we will let you guys know,” he patted Felicity’s shoulders as if trying to assure her that no one will force her to leave. 

Moira and Thea looked at each other and went to Oliver’s bed to say good bye. 

Laurel too nodded at that and then one by one, everyone except Diggle and Felicity left the room with the promise to come back next morning. Felicity did not hear anyone’s goodbyes, she kept looking at Oliver’s face, her one hand holding his left hand and the other one tracing his facial features – as if she is trying to memorize his face by touching it a million times. 

That first night set the pattern for the next 6 days, everyone else will come and go but Felicity would remain glued to his side. When they realized that Felicity would not leave the hospital until Oliver was out of coma, they gave in. Every night Thea, Diggle or Tommy would stay with Felicity. Laurel would be the first one in every day with breakfast and a fresh set of clothing for Felicity. She would then head out to work. Thea, Roy and Tommy would come during the day and would stay for long or short durations depending upon their schedules. Moira, who has taken over Oliver’s responsibilities at Queen Consolidated – would drop by after work every day and would stay till late night. A couple of board members also dropped by to check up on their CEO. 

Felicity received a surprise when she saw her parents on the 5th day at the hospital. Apparently, Tommy had been talking with them and updating them about everything. They came to make sure that she was doing fine. She assured her parents that she was fine and would be back to her old routine once Oliver wakes up. Her mother seemed pleased with this development and talked to Tommy in hushed tones before she left. 

No one asked Felicity about Daniel – he did not come, did not call her and when Laurel offered to call him on her behalf, she declined, telling her that he was in New Zealand and that she does not want to disturb him all the way across the world. Felicity was in such a precarious condition that no one pushed her. 

Felicity spent the six days after Oliver’s accident in a Zombie like state. It seemed like she was living a suspended life where the only decision she made for herself was to not leave Oliver’s bedside, the rest, she left to others. Not once did she ask Diggle about vigilante business and how was he managing it on his own. She did not ask Moira about things at Queen’s Consolidated, though she would give her input when Moira seeks her opinion on something. When someone would bring her food or coffee or a drink, she would obediently drink and eat it. When the doctors would call on Oliver, she would quietly stand by on the side and then hack the hospital’s records to get updates, but she would not ask them about his progress. She would wear whatever clothes Laurel would get from her apartment, she would go and sleep on the couch in Oliver’s room in the hospital when Tommy or Diggle or Thea would ask her to rest. She would watch whatever is on TV with Roy who was big on reality TV and had an opinion on everyone from all the Real Housewives to Millionaire matchmaker and Honey Boo Boo. The only subject off limits was Oliver Queen and her continued presence by his side. 

When there is no one around and it was just Oliver and Felicity, she would pull up a chair and sit next to him. Look into his face, hold his hands, run her fingers on his arms and his face and talk to him quietly about things that they never talk about – like how in her opinion renewable energy sources are the way of future and QC’s applied science division must invest in it to her desire to see all the shows on London’s West End. She told him that at times she think about going back to her original hair color but she has grown so accustomed to her blonde locks that she may not be able recognize herself if she was not blonde, she also asked him if it made her sound shallow. 

On the third day, they removed the tube at the back of his head and declared him out of danger. On the fourth day, he was taken off oxygen and on the fifth day, they took him off the meds that were keeping him asleep. Now they just had to wait for him to wake up to determine his condition. 

On the sixth night, Thea stayed with them at the hospital. Felicity was in her favorite position – in the chair by Oliver’s bedside holding onto his hand – but she looked tired and exhausted. Six days of not sleeping in a bed and taking showers in hospital bathroom had taken its toll on her. Thea asked her to take the huge sofa in the room and sleep but she declined and told Thea that she would take her up on the offer when she would get tired. Thea shrugged her shoulders and started watching a film on her tablet. She did not put on the ear plugs because she wanted to keep her eyes and ears on Oliver and Felicity – more on Felicity than Oliver if truth be told because she was worried about the older girl. 

It was a little before 2.00 am when Thea heard Oliver mumbling – she jumped up and went to see Oliver who had woken up and looked a little disoriented. Thea looked at Felicity, but she was in deep sleep – her face resting on Oliver’s forearm and her fingers entwined with one of his hands. Oliver cleared his throat and gestured if he could have something to drink. Thea grabbed a glass with a straw that was sitting by his bed – probably put there in anticipation of him waking up by Felicity – and handed it to him. He took a couple of sips and whispered, “What happened?” 

Thea smiled with tears in her eyes, “You had an accident but it seems you are gonna be okay, let me get the doctor.” 

Thea turned to get the medical staff but Oliver stopped her. 

“Wait, tell me something before the whole circus descends here,” he asked. 

She turned on her heels with a smile and said, “What?” 

“Err, what exactly happened to me?” and when he tried to lift his hands, he realized that there is weight on one of his arms, it was only then he noticed a woman with blonde hair sleeping on his forearm and turned to Thea again with question is his eyes, “Is that Felicity? Why is she sleeping here?” 

“Like I said Oliver, you had an accident, all of us have been worried, she more than all of us put together if you ask me, you were out for seven days and she hasn’t left your side for six of those days, let me get the doctor, he will fill you in,” Thea rushed out to get the doctors. 

She was by his side for six days, though he just woke up from a coma and was little fuzzy on most things, the thought that she was by his side filled him with joy – if the feeling of joy was possible soon after waking up from coma. 

Oliver tried moving his hand from under her face and called her name, “Felicity!” 

She woke up with a jerk, her glasses askew, she looked around her and said, “Sorry, I just dozed off,” to no one in particular. 

It was when Oliver said “Hey,” that she realized that Oliver was awake and she stood up and pushed her chair back. 

“Oh you are really awake; I thought … I was dreaming or something. Where is Thea, I thought she was watching a film on Netflix, shouldn’t I be calling for a doctor,” she babbled and did not know what to do. 

“Thea just stepped out to get the doctors,” Oliver responded. 

“Oh,” Felicity looked everywhere but at him and turned when she saw Thea entering the room with a whole team of doctors and other nursing staff. 

There was a flurry of activity afterwards, both Thea and Felicity were asked to wait outside while doctors checked his motor functions and ran a few tests on him. Thea texted everyone that Oliver has woken up and seems to be fine and that they don’t need to come right now but they all should be there to greet him bright and early. 

When Felicity and Thea were let in the room again, it felt different. Not only was Oliver sitting up, he was wearing beige pajamas instead of the sky blue hospital gown and was smiling. 

“They shaved part of my head. What do you think; can I shave the other side and go for a Mohawk?” he looked at both the girls with an amused look. 

Thea sat by his side and kissed his cheek. 

“You can only do the Mohawk if you promise to get skull tattoos, I mean what’s the point of shaving the sides of your head if you don’t have some bad ass tattoos to show, what say Felicity?” She turned and asked her. 

Felicity in the meantime got settled on the couch with a blanket around her legs. She smiled and said, “I would pay good money to see Oliver show up in a Mohawk at Queen’s Consolidated and face Isabel Rochev. If he comes out alive, he is allowed to touch my computers.” 

Oliver laughed out loud at that while Thea suspiciously looked at them. 

“Are we talking about computers here or is this some weird euphemism for something far kinkier? You guys know that I am still a teenager, right?” Thea raised her eye brows as she looked between them.

Oliver admonished her with a pointed “Speedy” while Felicity mumbled something along the lines that she may be a teenager but she probably was getting more action than both the adults in the room. 

With that, Felicity decided that she would catch some sleep on the sofa. She pulled up the blanket, bid the brother sister duo good night and closed her eyes, she went to sleep immediately. 

Thea sat on the edge of Oliver’s bed and the two chatted in hushed tones about everything that Oliver missed in the past one week. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

Felicity woke up with a start when she felt some weight on her foot. She sat up and adjusted her askewed glasses and saw Thea’s fido patterned sock clad foot that fell on hers. It seemed that sometime during the night, Thea took up the other end of sofa and dozed off. 

“Hey,” Oliver looked her way when he heard the rustle of the blankets. 

“Oh hi, good morning, you are up early,” Felicity set the blanket aside and got up. 

“Yeah, I have been told that I have been sleeping for a week so I couldn’t really go back to sleep after I woke up last night, still a bit disoriented though. Considering what we have been up to for all these years, it took a fall off the bike to keep me bed ridden for a whole week,” Oliver laughed. 

“Well, it was not just a fall and you are going to take it easy for a couple of more weeks, okay,” Felicity walked up to his bed with a look that said that she will get people to tie him to the bed if required. 

Oliver smiled and looked at him and when he kept looking at her, Felicity got a little flustered. 

“My hair probably looks like a bird’s nest. They have not seen a hair dryer or a straightener in a week’s time. I am probably not even fit to be in polite company” she said. 

He patted the bed space beside him and said, “Then it is a good thing that I am generally impolite. Sit with me,” Felicity who spent many a nights by his side, sitting on the chair, sitting on his bed next to him, sitting at the foot of the bed with his feet on her lap suddenly felt shy. Showing affection to a comatose Oliver was easy, he was lying in bed, in need of that attention and care and she gave it willingly. But now that he is up, smiling and looking at her with his piercing blue eyes, she was a little nervous. 

When he saw her hesitate, he added “please.” 

Felicity was not really capable of saying no to this version of Oliver – in hospital bed, smiling at her and saying ‘please’ so she relented and sat on the edge of the bed. 

They both were quiet and looking at everything but each other. All of a sudden, Oliver picked up her hand and said, “Thea told me that you have been here all this time?” 

When she did not respond and continued to look down at the white hospital bed sheet like it is the most interesting object, Oliver squeezed her hand and said, “Thank you. I mean I was not really awake for most of the time – or all the time – but thank you for being here. You didn’t need to be here.” 

“It’s okay, I mean you occupy most of my time – I am either at work with you or doing all kinds of illegal things for you at our underground headquarters, I seriously have no idea what I would’ve done if I had not been here, I mean there is so much TV one can watch right?” she tried to joke about the fact that she was glued to his side. When Oliver was comatose, she had no qualms about being around him but now that he is up and asking questions and being grateful to her, she really felt that she over reached as a friend and perhaps it would have been better to be at work helping his mother instead of being with him. 

She pulled her hand out of his and said, “I should leave, I plan on going to work today – your mother has been holding the fort but I think I should be there as well – and this,” she pointed a finger towards her hair, “needs a lot of time and attention if I am to look presentable so I am going to take off and work on it,” she was nervous and pointed to her hair again as if citing follicle emergency would wipe out those days and night that she spent with Oliver – some of them on the same bed – at times with an audience which lead her to flush deeply and she wondered how everyone must have thought that she was bonkers. 

Just when she thought she escaped the humiliation of Oliver actually saying anything more, Oliver called her again and said, “Thank Daniel for me, will you? It was really nice of him to let you spend so much time here.” 

She barely nodded and left the room. When she came out, she had tears in her eyes and she felt like she was quite the prized hypocrite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to update it within a reasonable amount of time and it is a longer chapter so yeay for me.  
> I would really like if people leave some comments (and I would welcome nasty critique as well) because that will help me become a better writer. So I would love it if there is some feedback at the end.


	13. “We are funny? How?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where everything comes together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, many apologies for everyone who was reading/following this story and then I kind of forgotten about it.  
> I was going through my old computer and realized it was half done since ages so I got work on it and decided not to break chapters and post it all as one final chapter.  
> As I started writing it after last year's comic con, I realized that I should post it before the event starts this year. So here is a monster chapter of almost 8000 words.

Felicity visited Oliver twice after that hasty retreat the morning he woke up from his coma. Both the visits were brief and always in company of Merlyns. She hasn’t been to see Oliver since he moved back to his house. It’s not like she did not want to see him – she was fine seeing him in the hospital – but felt a little inhibited to visit him in the place where she kissed him last. Oliver called her a couple of times and asked if she will be down to visit him and both times she agreed that she would if she gets off early. First time, she had to be on comms duty when Diggle suited up to stop a bunch of gangbangers fighting over a stash of weapons left by some drug lord who was captured by the Arrow a month before and second time, she made the excuse of working late at QC. 

It was the Friday and Oliver was so agitated that he drove everyone around him crazy. He was not talking to either Diggle or Thea – the two people who were at home with him, refused to eat anything and refused to talk to anyone. By 3.00 pm. Thea was really worried so she called Tommy and her mother for help. Tommy arrived first and went into his room and then Moira followed shortly. Just when she wanted to knock on her son’s room door to announce her arrival, she heard Oliver asking Tommy – in a really loud voice – about why Felicity has not visited him since he moved back to his home and if Tommy is in the know of her reasons. Tommy was not in the know. 

Moira turned back and saw John Diggle standing behind her. 

“Mr Diggle, I think you know what to do in a situation like this. Take no excuse as an answer, in fact tell Ms. Smoak that I need to see her immediately and the she must come with you, I will speak with her when she gets here,” Moira spoke with cool confidence.  
Diggle just nodded in response and left to go fetch Felicity. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Diggle, I saw her like 2 hours ago and there was nothing urgent, do you really know what happened? Why would Moira Queen want to see me?” Felicity was relentless in her questions on the way to Queen Mansion. 

“Felicity, you know I try to keep my interactions with Mrs. Queen to the minimal, she asked me to get you and I did just that, I am sure it is nothing serious,” Diggle reassured her as they parked in front of the entrance and got out of the car. 

Moira has always been courteous and polite to Felicity but she always felt gauche in her presence, especially when either Oliver or Thea are not present. She thought that the older woman wakes up with a perfectly coiffed head of hair and beautifully curled dark lashes. It doesn't help that she is always immaculately dressed. 

She entered and saw Moira pacing the floor in foyer and panicked. There must be something seriously wrong to get unflappable Moira pacing the floor, she thought. 

“Ah Felicity, you are here,” she smiled at the younger woman. “Can I offer you something to drink or eat?”

“Not really, but thanks,” Felicity moved towards to the parlour where she usually sits whenever she visited Queen Mansion before, whether it was for work related stuff or when Thea engaged her in wedding planning for Laurel and Tommy, but Moira steered her towards stairs. 

“We thought Oliver would get better once he got home but if anything he has gotten worse,” she paused midway when she heard Felicity hissed as if it has physically hurt her to know that Oliver’s condition has worsened. 

“No he is fine medically. The doctor comes in every morning to check upon him and we have a nurse here 24/7. There is nothing particularly wrong with him, it is just that he has turned grumpier and he is sad and angry all the time. I think he misses you,” Moira said. 

“Oh no, it’s not like that Mrs. Queen,” Felicity tried to tell her that there is nothing between the two of them. 

“You are a bright woman Felicity and I would like to think that you would consider me intelligent enough to be straight with me, whether you two like to admit it or not, but there is something there. You are the woman in his life and he is the man in yours, you just need to figure out how to get there.” Moira paused in front of Oliver’s room and smiled at Felicity. 

“What do you want me to say to him, it’s not like he actually listens to me,” Felicity tried to ignore Moira’s smile. It felt like she was giving them her blessings which she cannot really accept. I mean it’s not like Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are a thing. 

“Nothing, anything. Talk to him about whatever you guys talk, just tell him that you are there, I will check upon you guys shortly if you need anything,” she smiled and left her there. 

Felicity stood outside Oliver’s room and looked around. God knows where Diggle had gone to park the car and she could not even see Thea or Tommy whom she knew was somewhere around the house. She decided that she cannot really stall it and must see Oliver now that she is here in his house. She is an adult and she should be able to do it without the buffer of Tommy, Thea or Diggle. 

She knocked and when she heard nothing but a couple of grunts, she turned the door knob and entered. 

He was on the floor doing pushups when Felicity entered Oliver’s room. She ran towards him the minute she saw him on the floor and touched his shoulder. 

“Are you crazy? Why are you exerting yourself like this? Are you cleared by the doctor for this? She asked, eyes wide thinking that Oliver is really insane. 

Oliver slumped on the carpet the minute she touched his shoulder, face resting on his hands. Felicity too sat next to him, cross legged. 

“Are you okay?” she bent her head to her right to see his face. 

“No, I am not okay,” Oliver sounded sulky. 

“What happened? Does your head hurt, are your stitches giving you trouble?” she persisted, wanting to know exactly what bothered Oliver. 

“Seriously! You need to ask? I was told that you were glued to my side for a week when I was unconscious and the minute I woke up, you couldn't wait to run away and then disappeared on me. Why have you come now? Did Diggle ask you to come and deal with me?” Oliver was so angry he got up and started pacing. 

“It was actually your mother,” Felicity said quietly. 

“What?” My mother is calling you now? What do they think you are? Some kind of Oliver whisperer who will deal with me when I am being difficult? I am not being difficult, I have had a nasty accident and I am allowed to be moody if I feel like it.” Oliver was still angry. 

“I am sorry, I should’ve visited you earlier and I have no excuse for that, I was just ….” Felicity could not finish her sentence and started twisting her hands in her lap. 

Oliver turned to look at her and stopped pacing when he saw her sitting down quietly looking at her hands in her lap fingers twisting trying to muster up courage to say something. 

All of a sudden his anger at her absence was gone and he sat down on the edge of his bed. He felt bad looking at her forlorn profile, so he asked, “Could you please hand me my pills, they are probably on the dresser?” 

Felicity got up and fetched him his pills and a water bottle that was set on a table next to the dresser. Oliver took his pills, drank some water and looked up at her. She looked like a little girl in apple green flared skirt, a floral blouse and her trade mark ponytail. 

“Sit with me, will you?” Oliver raised his eyes and asked. 

Felicity sat next to him and Oliver took her hand in his as soon as she sat down. Then Felicity grabbed his hand in in both of hers, put it on her lap, and played with his fingers. They sat in silence that neither was in any hurry to break. 

Felicity looked up at him and said, “If it is possible, you look worse than you did in the hospital after waking up from coma, what’s bothering you, your mother is really worried about you?” 

“I have not slept since I got home,” he responded so quietly that she barely heard. 

“Why, did you have nightmares? Have you spoken to a doctor about it?” once again, she was full of questions, wanting to know what was bothering him. 

“You stopped coming and I did not know if it was something I did or said. I mean I could not even remember what I said after I woke up and I could not ask you because you were not here. In case you have not figured it out as yet, you are important to me and I don’t want to lose you and I always do something stupid to drive people away. I could not sleep or eat because I did not know if I would see you again. I am not good with people and you know it. I mean for all my life, I have practically one friend to show and that is probably because Tommy is too nice to ditch me when I get nasty,” Oliver was visibly upset. 

“Oh Oliver, I am so sorry, honestly, there was way too much stuff to handle with you not being there and I was dealing some of my own personal issues. Not to mention the fact that I was working as a buffer between your mother and Isabel Rochev. I swear, I thought Isabel hates me most but she is practically cuddly to me in comparison to how she treats your mom and your mother is a very scary woman when she puts her mind to it, I am surprised I survived this week and half between them. Please start sleeping and eating well so that you can come back to work, being the peace keeping force between these two women is giving me ulcers, the bad kind, you know,” she rambled till she heard Oliver laughed. 

“And you are not nasty and no one is leaving you. Tommy is not your only friend, there is Laurel, Diggle, Roy who may be scared of you half the time but he still admires you a lot and there is me - I am always around, we are gonna stick around, okay?” she runs her thumbs over his fingers and assures him that she is not leaving him. 

“Would you stay for a while, I'd sleep better if you are here,” Oliver asked, with honesty and no pretense. During the days he was wondering about Felicity, he made one decision. He would not hide his feelings for Felicity any more. Sure he wouldn't ram it down her throat at the first opportunity because he was not sure if she was ready for him but he made the decision that he would be honest and upfront. 

“Sure,” Felicity got up from the bed, moved to the other side to pull the covers. He too followed her and gotten in the bed. When she started pulling a chair, he moved to the middle of the bed and said, “Come sit with me, please, only until I fall asleep.”  
Felicity hesitated for a minute but then relented. She took off her heels and sat on the bed next to him. To diffuse any probable tension, she asked him the first question that came to her mind.

“Are the stitches to your head any different than the stitches to other parts of the body?” and Oliver laughed at that. 

When Moira knocked half an hour later to ask Oliver and Felicity for dinner, she saw Oliver sleeping peacefully in the middle of his bed. Next to him, Felicity was leaning against the headboard, her legs stretched out and a small pillow on her lap and her hands on top of that pillow. Oliver was holding on to one of her hands on top of that pillow even when he was fast asleep. She closed the door and quietly retreated. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Felicity woke up with a start. 

It took her a few seconds before she realized that she had fallen asleep on Oliver Queen’s bed holding his hand. She looked around for her phone to check time but realized that it was in her purse which was lying on the other end of the room on the carpet where Oliver was doing pushups when she first entered. 

She saw Oliver’s phone by the bed and checked time. It was well past 10.00 pm. She got to the Queen mansion after 4.00 pm and it meant that she too was sleeping for over 5 hours – and that too while reclining against the head board. 

She disentangled Oliver’s fingers from hers and quietly slipped out of the bed. She left her heels by the bed and stepped out to see if anyone else was around. She crossed the hallway and climbed down the stairs. There was no one to be seen and the house looked even bigger without anyone else around. She called out Thea’s and Moira’s name wondering where they were and literally jumped out of her skin when she heard Thea’s voice. 

“The sleeping beauty awakes!” she smiled. 

You knew I was sleeping?” she asked. 

“Yeah, mom actually went up to see if you’d like to join us for dinner but it turned out that you were just as tired as Oliver was so she asked us not to disturb you guys. Tommy waited but left just a few minutes ago,” Thea filled her in. 

Felicity was standing in the middle of parlor, bare feet and wondering why everyone is so normal about her sleeping in Oliver’s room, with him – like she has been doing it forever! Before she could’ve said anything, her stomach rumbled, rather loudly and Thea laughed. 

“Come on, I gathered you came straight from work so you must be hungry,” she lead Felicity to the kitchen and opened the fridge. “We had spinach salad and lamb cutlets at dinner but there is some chicken in there and this I think is chowder, she picked out a Tupperware bowl from the refrigerator and tried to sneak into it by lifting the corner of the lid.

“Or I can make you eggs but I must warn you that is the total extent of my culinary abilities. If you want something else, we will have to get hold of Raisa,” Thea gave her the options. 

“Oh no, don’t get her up, I am fine with anything. Lamb cutlets or salad or chicken, I eat everything except nuts, I am allergic to them and I think I am also allergic to shellfish or perhaps I just don’t like shell fish and made myself believe that I am allergic to shellfish but I know for sure that I am allergic to nuts,” Felicity who generally would be content with a strawberry jam sandwich was a little overwhelmed with all the options. 

“Oh this is nothing, if Raisa knew you were coming for dinner, she would’ve made her specials. Her fish with dill sauce is my personal favorite, next time you are here, I will ask her to make it for you,” Thea pulled out both chicken and lamb cutlets and put them in microwave and was plating the salad when Felicity asked. 

“Thanks a lot. I did not realize that I had not eaten for quite some time,” Felicity hopped on one of the stools and started eating her dinner. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat something, I feel awkward eating in front of you,” Felicity pointed to the food and asked Thea. 

“I ate with mom and Tommy, but once you are done, we can have some dessert, perhaps some ice-cream if you like?” Thea suggested. 

“Oh I am always down for ice-cream. When I was a kid, I would do all the chores my sister was supposed to do as long as she could sneak in a couple of scoops of ice-cream,” Felicity laughed at her childhood memory. 

Once Felicity was done eating, they moved to TV room with their ice-creams – Felicity with Blueberries and Thea with cookie dough. 

“I came with Diggle earlier, but I guess he is off duty now, would it be possible for you to get someone else to drive me home or to QC? My car is still at the office so I could drive back home from there onwards,” Felicity wanted to leave, she was quite embarrassed that she slept for hours at their house but Thea had other ideas. 

“Why don’t you stay the night, its weekend, you don’t have to be at work in the morning. Stay here, have breakfast with us and then you can leave. You have not even said goodbye to Ollie and he’s gonna flip when he wakes up and figures out that you’ve left without seeing him. I also have a feeling that mom would want to thank you,” Thea suggested. 

“Why would your mom thank me?” Felicity was alarmed. 

“Ollie was being a pain before you came, he was not resting, not eating, being a general asshat and you calmed him down which he needs to properly heal. He’s had a head injury but he is too thick headed to actually care,” Thea laughed at her own sentence as if she said something really really smart. 

Felicity pondered for a few seconds before she acquiesced. 

“Okay, I will stay but I would need a change of clothes and preferably a tooth brush. I can’t believe I slept in the clothes I wore to work,” she picked on her now wrinkled skirt. 

“Felicity, Felicity?” 

Oliver was calling out Felicity’s name in his house and Felicity felt weird hearing that. She looked agitated and Thea laughed at her expressions. 

“Thea, have you seen her?” Oliver came running down the stairs. 

“God, Ollie, please … go all caveman! Yes, she is here with me, she was hungry and I offered her dinner – something that you should’ve offered,” Thea looked at her brother as if something is seriously wrong with him and who could’ve blamed her, Oliver never behaved like this around a girl, not even before island when he used to willingly express emotions. 

Oliver then looked at Felicity peeking from the edge of the door with a bowl in her hand. 

“I am sorry, I thought you had left,” he moved towards her but then stopped and stood next to Thea. 

“Oliver! My purse is in your room, along with my tablet and my shoes. I may have left the house without the purse but not without my shoes and tablet and you know that,” she laughed aloud when Thea rolled her eyes and Oliver looked down at his own feet, “Did you want something?” she put her bowl of ice cream on a table and moved in their direction. 

“Not really, I just ….” Oliver was lost for words. He did not know what he actually thought. When he went to sleep, Felicity was sitting in his bed, next to him and when he woke up, she was not and then his body just reacted. Now he is standing at the entrance of the parlour, bare feet, with his sister and Felicity in an awkward silence. 

“Do you want to eat something, should I get you something or should I send for Raisa?” Thea broke the silence with something as practical as food. 

“No, I will just get something myself, he walked in the kitchen with Thea and Felicity following him.  
He opened the refrigerator and gulped down half a gallon of milk and then opened a few cabinets before he found a tin of almonds and then ate a handful of them straight out of the tin. 

“Was that …. your dinner?” Felicity looked between the tin of almonds, Thea and Oliver and asked. 

“Oh Felicity, It was much better that his previous meal which was coffee and dry cereal. Honestly, it was painful to watch him eat dry cereal,” Thea shuddered. 

“Hey, I ate an apple as well,” Oliver intervened Thea. 

“And the world is grateful for that!” Thea was not relenting.  
Thea was talking to her brother while Felicity was looking at them from the doorway and thought that this Oliver is quite different from the Oliver she knows. I mean he is kind and affectionate with her and Diggle and quite jovial with Tommy but the way he is with Thea was just wonderful. She felt like an intruder just witnessing them. 

“Err Thea, if you can just point me where I can sleep, I would like to … you know get some shut eye” Felicity asked Thea, avoiding looking at Oliver.  
“You are staying over?” Oliver was not smiling but he sounded very happy. 

“Yeah, it is late and she came here with Diggle so I asked her to stick around till breakfast. I mean you were sleeping and mom was in her room so I thought she would want to see you guys before she leaves,” Thea explained and then turned to Felicity, “Come along, I will get you something to sleep in before I show you your room.”  
Felicity started walking behind Thea but Oliver reached out and touched her shoulder. 

“Felicity, errrr, could you stay here for a bit, I need to talk to you about something,” when Felicity nodded, he turned his head to Thea and said, “Could you please put whatever Felicity needs in my room,” his tone was such that Thea did not say anything, just smiled slyly and nodded. She squeezed Felicity hand before running off to the stairs. 

“Do you want some more ice cream?” Oliver pointed towards the ice cream bowl that Felicity picked up from the table and was walking towards the kitchen to put in the dishwasher. 

“I think I already have a sugar high, this bowl was huge! Add that to the fact that I already slept for like 5 hours, I am quite alert and raring to go. Too bad we don’t have any arrow related activity right now,” Felicity smiled. 

“Come and sit with me,” he pointed towards the parlor and when she followed him, he sat on the same couch with her. 

“Seriously Oliver, things are fine at QC, you don’t need to worry about the business end of the things, I mean Mr. Giles was being his usual petulant self but we managed him – like we always do. Moira and I think it is Isabel who put him up to the latest mischief. Honestly, I never thought I would say this because I think your mother is scary and at times I find her to be very mysterious and mysteries bug me but between the two of us, we handle Isabel way better than you ever did,” she was genuinely happy to have an upper hand over Isabel Rochev for a change. 

“So you prefer to work with my mother than me?” Oliver was genuinely shocked. 

“I prefer to work with neither of you – you know I would always prefer computers over human beings to work with but given a choice between you and your mom, I would go with her because I don’t have to twist her arm for her to read the progress reports or quarterly financials. She does it on her own,” Felicity’s eyes were glinting with mischief. 

“I am sure you and mom are doing extremely well together but I don’t want to talk about QC,” Oliver smiled at her – indulgently. 

“Oh, you don’t?” Felicity did not know what to say. 

They were both quiet for a few minutes and it looked like that they don’t know how to actually start the conversation when Oliver just turned himself on to the sofa to face Felicity and asked. “When did you break up with Daniel?” 

“Who told you about that? I didn’t tell anyone? Did you speak with him? Did he call you?” Felicity had a million questions in response to Oliver’s question. 

“No one called me or told me anything Felicity,” Oliver caught her wrist and tried to calm her down. When she did not look up and continued to look at her wrist where Oliver was holding her, he let go of her wrist and laced hid fingers with hers. 

“Felicity, you cried and ran away when we …. You know at Tommy’s wedding and then you were barely talking to me after that. Then I go and crack my head and Thea tells me that you did not leave my side for 7 days when I was asleep in the hospital. It does not take a genius to figure out that whatever you had going on with Daniel is not there anymore because if anything, you are loyal to a fault and you would not have stayed with me if you were still with him – especially after what happened at Tommy’s wedding and your explanation after that. So tell me, when did you break up with him? 

“Why do you want to know?” She was still not looking at him. 

“I just do, please humor me and look at me,” Oliver beseeched her. 

She looked up at him with sad eyes. 

“It was the day after Tommy’s return from the honeymoon when we all got together for dinner. He said he has something special planned and when I went to see him, he cooked me dinner and he asked me to go to Indonesia with him – he got this assignment from United Nations and he was asked to be stationed in Asia for 18 months and he asked me to go with him, to be with him, to make a life with him and after what happened at Tommy’s wedding, I felt like a cheater – a hypocrite – so I said no,” Felicity wrenched her hand away as she gave him her reasons. 

“Is that the only reason? Because nothing happened really?” Oliver’s face was bent but he was looking at her from under his lashes. 

“No, something did happen Oliver. And it made me sad and angry – at myself. There was a perfectly nice man asking me to me move in with him – honestly – I never thought I would ever end up with someone like that because you know me – people like me don’t end up with men with exude surfer boy cool along with impeccable pedigree and Ivy League degrees. He was perfect and if I could not be faithful to him, what chance do I have to be faithful to anyone?” Felicity was crying – so very quietly.  
Something broke in Oliver when he saw her crying – without a sound – just tears streaming down her face and he had to comfort her. 

“No, nothing happened that you needed to regret. I kissed you and you broke that kiss and ran away and that was all. You broke up with Daniel, that’s fine. People break up with people all the time but they do not blame themselves and neither should you. You are this amazingly wonderful and loyal person and you must never sell yourself short. Daniel is not around anymore but there will be others. I am not just saying because I want you to feel better, I am saying this because I honestly believe this.” Oliver tried to reason with her.  
“Well, if we are being honest with each other, then I too have a confession,” Felicity pulled back her hands and sat straight on the sofa. She rubbed her hands on her skirt and said, “I don’t regret what happened that day … at Tommy’s wedding – the kiss I mean. And that makes it worse. I thought I had something with Daniel, I invited him to the wedding but the minute you touched me, I forgot he even existed. If Thea had not called me that day, I would have continued kissing you Oliver, I probably would’ve done a lot more than kissing … If it weren’t for Thea, I would’ve cheated on Daniel and would’ve probably enjoyed it. I thought I was a nice person – I mean that was all I had going for me all my life – Faith was the beautiful socially skilled daughter, Ben was the brave adventurous son and what did I do? I was the nice kid who did well in school. Well, guess what? I am no longer nice, apparently I cheat now. I was supposed to be with him and I chose to kiss you!” 

Oliver stilled when he heard that. In fact he was afraid to look away from her face that if he looked away, this moment would be gone and so would the revelation that he was not alone in that kiss. That she was there every step of the way and if Thea had not come, things could’ve gone much further but he must not think about that now. It is more important to get through to Felicity at this point. 

“The fact that you are fretting over a kiss makes you a nice person Felicity, you care. You worry about everyone – from your sister to my sister, you worry about Dig and I when we go out and you take care of us. You live 600 miles away and lead a life as hectic as you do but you text your dad twice a day to make sure that he is taking his medicine and doing the exercises that he is supposed to do to control his diabetes. You may not get along with your mom but you call her every week because you cannot help caring for her. You are the sister Tommy never knew he wanted until you came along and cemented your place in his heart in a way that you will never be replaced. You are the best part of all our lives so don’t berate yourself for whatever happened that day. You may make wrong choices in life because choosing me in any capacity would probably not be the best choice in any life time, but that does not make you a bad person, it just makes you human Felicity, don’t beat yourself up,” Oliver got off the sofa and kneeled in front of Felicity to make her understand that she was not at fault. 

Felicity stopped staring the space in front of her and looked down at Oliver’s bright blue eyes. There was something about the earnestness of his expressions and the way he was crouching in front of her that made him look vulnerable and innocent and Felicity had this overwhelming urge to protect him and save him and love him for as long as she could. She touched his face with her fingers – first his brow, then his cheek bones and finally she cups his jaw with her hand. He leans into her touch, she smiles at his action and said, 

“okay.” 

“Okay?” Oliver raised his eye brow as if he is asking a question.

“Okay, I am willing to give myself the benefit of doubt that I am not the worst person but you will have to do something for me in return,” she smiles at him and he felt that everything was right in the world. 

“Anything, anything you want,” Oliver puts his hand over hers on his face and promised. 

“You will never say that you are a wrong choice – for anyone in any life time. If the people of the city would know you are the man under the hood, they would not only choose you, they would love you. Heck, they already do, they just don’t know who you are. 30,000 employees of QC depend on you. Your board of directors chose you. You were Tommy’s first choice for a friend and will always be. Digg and I chose to stand beside you and we will always be here for you – no matter what – can you believe it and accept it?” Felicity asked, leaning forward to make sure that Oliver does not break eye contact. 

Oliver was stunned, he could not really respond and sort of slumped into her lap and put his arms around her waist. Felicity leaned a little bit forward to accommodate him and ran her fingers on his head. There was a growth of about a quarter of an inch of hair on his shaved head – his stitches were still there she was sure that there would be a scar on the side of his head just above his ear. 

“You know, you will probably need to wear your hair a little bit longer, you usual half an inch would not hide this one,” she touched the cut and said.  
Oliver did not say anything, he smiled and buried his face further in her lap and she continued to caress his head. 

They stayed that way for a very long time – Felicity on the couch softly scratching Oliver’s week long hair and his slightly longer beard and Oliver sitting on the floor with his head on Felicity’s lap and his arms around her waist. 

“Oliver, are you sleeping? If you are then let’s get you upstairs where you can rest more comfortably.” She patted his shoulder. 

Oliver raised his head and looked at her and thought she never looked more beautiful than she did then. Her trade mark ponytail was let loose because of her sleeping in it and some hair escaped loose, creating a gold halo around her face. Her lips were wiped off of her trade mark pink lipstick and her mascara was smudged and some of it ran down to her cheeks when she cried. Her glasses fell off her nose a little and she was looking down at him with the most beautiful smile. She looked real and ethereal at the same time – if that was possible. 

He nodded and scrambled to his feet. 

“Let’s go upstairs,” he offered her his hand and she took it in hers. 

When they reached his room, she saw that Thea left her not only with sleeping shorts and a t shirt to sleep in but also a pair of jeans and a blue polka dot top as change of clothing for the morning along with a fresh tooth brush, a comb and some toiletries. Felicity was touched by Thea’s consideration. 

She picked up the clothes and turned back to look at him and smiled, “If you can only show me where I am sleeping, we will call it a night.”

“Stay,” he came forward and stood right in front of her. 

“Of course I am staying Oliver, it is like 1:30 in the morning, everyone is off the clock and probably sleeping, I have no one to drive me off – even if I wanted to go home,” she laughed, a little nervous, because a very serious looking Oliver was standing in front of her looked larger than he was. 

“No, I meant stay here with me,” he tilted his head towards his bed and her breath hitched a little. They had a moment or fifteen since he last kissed her and she pretty much admitted to being attracted to him – to the extent that she would have cheated on her then boyfriend – but they have not really defined anything. They are not dating, they don’t even know what they are and where they are going and she had only broken up with Daniel like a few weeks back. It’s not like she did not want to stay, the problem was she very much wanted to stay but she did not know if it was the right thing to do. 

She looked at the bed and then back at Oliver and she looked conflicted. Oliver took the bundle of clothes that Thea left for her off her hands and put them back on the chair where they were. He took both her hands in his and said, “You and I both know we will end up together, right? You can run away, have another boyfriend, you can be married to someone else or not – I don’t know because I cannot see into the future, but I do know that we will end up together – sooner or later – and I would like it to be sooner rather than later. You are it for me Felicity, I did not even know it but I stopped looking a long time back. It’s up to you now to ….” 

“Gimme a few minutes, okay?” she cut him short and bent down to pick up the stuff Thea left and went into the attached bathroom.  
A few short minutes later, she came out wearing lemon colored sleeping shorts and a plain white tank top with a freshly scrubbed face and hair falling down her shoulders. She saw Oliver standing exactly at the same spot where she left him looking at her with an odd expression. She smiled and looked at the half made bed where she and Oliver slept a few hours ago with her on top of the covers and him underneath them. She pulled the covers, fluffed the pillows and straightened the sheets as if she had been doing that in his room all her life; he was transfixed by that image. When she was done with the bed and saw him rooted to the same spot, she raised her eye brow and asked, “Are you going to sleep standing up – in the middle of the room?” 

Oliver was shaken out of his reverie at her voice and sheepishly gestured towards the washroom. He could not believe that Felicity – his Felicity – was in his room and will probably get into the bed with him. He absent mindedly squeezed the toothpaste out and started brushing his teeth when he noticed Felicity’s clothes hung on one of the hooks. That sight gave him immense pleasure – as if his and Felicity’s life has started to mesh up already.  
After rinsing his mouth and washing his face, he came out and saw Felicity sitting on the bed with covers drawn up her legs checking something on her phone, he came and stood beside the bed and said “hi.” 

“I hope it is okay that I took this side of the bed? I saw you sleeping on the other side earlier and thought that you usually sleep on that side. Knowing you, I have a feeling you would want to sleep closer to the door but if you want to switch sides, I can do that too,” Felicity went on and on when he did not respond to her.  
“This is fine Felicity,” his smile was unwavering. He crossed the bed and got in on the other side – pulling the covers up. Felicity put her phone down on the bedside table, switched off the lamps and she too followed suit. 

They were both in the bed and very very quiet when all of a sudden Oliver chuckled. Felicity turned and propped herself on her elbows. 

“What’s so funny?” she asked. 

“Us, this, everything,” Oliver laughed. 

Felicity switched on the lamp on her side of the bed and looked at him and asked, “We are funny? How?” 

“We do everything in a weird way, I mean we are not dating, we have not really talked about anything, we have not even kissed and yet we are in the same bed,” he turned his head to look at her and laughed. 

“Technically, we have kissed, I mean not since I have been single and available and expressed intent but you know …” she blushed when she realized what she said and Oliver laughed some more. 

“Stop it Oliver, don’t laugh,” Felicity warned him but Oliver could not stop and continued to laugh. Felicity, who was propped up on her elbows, looking down at him realized that this is happiest she has ever seen him and it emboldened her to move a little to her right and lowered her mouth to his. 

Oliver was not expecting her to kiss him, so he was immobilized into a shock for a total of 7 seconds before his hands crept up to her back and he kissed her back.

She tasted of mint toothpaste that she had used a few minutes before and it filled Oliver with happiness and light. Oliver moved a little closer and tugged her to him with one of his hands and pushed her hair with another. Felicity moved half on top of him and deepened the kiss, prying his mouth open with her lips. 

Oliver welcomed her tongue in his mouth and then sucked on her lower lip which made her hiss and push her breasts against his chest and her leg between his thighs. Oliver groaned and broke the kiss. 

“Stop Felicity, just …” Oliver pushed himself back towards his pillow and away from Felicity who pulled and looked at him in wonder with her hair falling around her face and on his chest. 

“Did I hurt you, your ribs, oh I am so sorry, did I push too hard?” She was mortified. 

“No, my ribs are fine and so is my head and other assorted parts of the body … but I gotta do something right. I am not sleeping with you unless I take you out on a proper date, and if we keep kissing then I am not gonna be able to stop so you stay on your corner and I will stay in mine. You will go back to your home in the morning and then I will come pick you and we would go on a proper date and then when I will drop you off after the date, you will ask me to come in for a night cap and we are going to do it the right way – like normal people do – under the pretext of drinking, then making out on the sofa and then finally moving to the bedroom,” Oliver had this very thoughtful expression when he laid out the whole plan for the day ahead. 

He looked so earnest and serious that it made Felicity laugh. 

“You do realize that you are still not cleared for driving or anything hectic, so driving down to my place and then going out is definitely out. You suffered severe head trauma and had it been anyone else, that person would probably be still in hospital. You are on medication so I cannot really offer you a night cap so drinking is out and if we cannot go out on a date and I cannot invite you in for a nightcap, how about if we miss all that and get to the point, we are already in a bedroom and in a bed which is a very nice bed,” Felicity smiled suggestively at him. 

“Then we wait until we can go out because I want to woo you, properly like they do in old school films. Perhaps I would take you out, bring you flowers, shout your name and show you to the world … I don’t know… all of that or something else,” Oliver was adamant that now she is here by his side, he will do everything right which made Felicity heart skip a beat or two. 

“How about a compromise. Get someone, but not Dig because I am not ready to deal with that, to drive you to my place tomorrow – you can bring me flowers and wine which I will drink and you will not. I will cook you dinner and we will stay in. How does that sound?” she asked while touching his face gently with her fingers.

Oliver nodded and Felicity slumped back on her pillow, still holding his hands in her. Now that she confessed about her feelings – well sort of – she just did not want to let go of his hand. 

They talked well into the night about everything and nothing before they fell asleep – hand in hand. She talked about her first apartment after she moved out of the dorms and how it was painted neon green and it took her three weekends to paint that color away. He talked about the first car he tanked and how Robert Queen made him sit in his study for 4 hours and then let him off the hook after a minor reprimand. She talked about her attempts to pet frogs and grasshoppers and rabbits before she finally settled on Nancy, her dog who passed away soon after she started working at QC. She obviously named her dog after Nancy Drew because she genuinely believed her dog to be as smart as Nancy Drew. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When they went downstairs in the morning for breakfast and were holding hands, neither Moira nor Thea commented on it. 

Moira just asked her how she liked her eggs and ordered the cook to get them. Thea too complimented her on looking fresh and that was it. 

Moira and Thea were not the only ones, a month later when they “officially” announced after a dinner that they were dating and were kind of together, no one reacted. Tommy patted his back and said that he is happy for them, Thea smirked and that was it. Moira and Laurel looked at the couple and then at each other and smiled. Roy did not how to react so he did not say anything to Oliver and did this awkward pat thing on Felicity’s arm and tried to smile. Diggle just raised his glass of scotch and then took another sip. Felicity’s mother smiled beatifically at them as if she was the one orchestrated the whole thing. Her father was the only one who reacted the way one would expect someone to react at an announcement like this. He got up from his seat, kissed Felicity on the cheek and shook hands with Oliver. Everyone then realized that they too should’ve reacted in a similar way so they all got up and said the usual pleasantries. 

Oliver was pissed that no one reacted the way he wanted them to and when he complained to Tommy a few days later, Tommy laughed. He explained that for most of the people there, they have been together even when they did not know it themselves so that announcement was less of an announcement and more of a confirmation that everyone already knew. 

Felicity was happy – she wanted things to be low key and smooth for as long as they could stay that way so in a way, she was grateful that there was no big reaction to the news. She was in this perfect place in her life where she was with a man she loves dearly, has a job that she likes, makes a difference in the lives of so many people by keeping the city safe, has a much improved relationship with her mother and has the love of all her friends around her. 

 

Oliver was not just happy, he was ecstatic. He thought he lost it all when Felicity ran away from him at Tommy’s wedding. From then to now – he couldn't be happier. 

 

But it was Tommy who was the happiest of them all – because let’s just admit it. If he had not pushed Oliver like he did, the idiot would have wasted another couple of years at least before he came clean and if anything patience is not something Tommy Merlyn has in abundance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the last chapter of this story, but I will post an epilogue after this one. It will carry little snippets and peaks into their life together after the events posted here.  
> If you like it, please leave a comment, I would be really grateful. If you did not like it, let me know why. Your input is always valuable and helps me in improving my writing.


End file.
